Krugman Rips Scarborough’s ‘Vile’ Claim Of Census Cooking The Books On Obamacare

American economy Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman talks to journalists during a news conference before being awarded an Honoris Causa degree by Lisbon University, Lisbon Technical University and Lisbon Nova Universi... American economy Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman talks to journalists during a news conference before being awarded an Honoris Causa degree by Lisbon University, Lisbon Technical University and Lisbon Nova University Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 in Lisbon. (AP Photo/ Francisco Seco) MORE LESS
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In a blog post Wednesday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman aggressively swiped “talk show hosts” who “literally know nothing” about health insurance data-collecting and yet accuse the U.S. Census Bureau of trying to “cook the books” on Obamacare.

He didn’t mention him by name, but Krugman was referring to Joe Scarborough. He linked to this article about the MSNBC host making that exact claim on his show Wednesday morning, one day after it was reported that the Census would change how it measured insurance coverage rates (which angered many Republicans).

“You can argue that the Census decision to change its health-insurance questionnaire starting with the 2013 data wasn’t such a good idea — in fact, I know a number of health care experts who are dismayed,” wrote Krugman, a liberal columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist. “But it’s really quite vile to have talk-show hosts who quite literally know nothing about the field, other than that they’re against covering the uninsured, casually accusing Census of “cooking the books” to support Obamacare.” (Link in the original.)

Here’s what Scarborough said: “Listen, the White Houses on both sides do their best to cook the books… This is a particularly clumsy effort.”

The headline of Krugman’s blog post? “Obamacare Truthers at MSNBC.”

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