Hillary Doesn't Listen to Economists

From Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's former Secretary of Labor:

When asked this morning by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos if she could name a single economist who backs her call for a gas tax holiday this summer, HRC said "I'm not going to put my lot in with economists."

I know several economists who have been advising Senator Clinton, so I phoned them right after I heard this. I reached two of them. One hadn't heard her remark and said he couldn't believe she'd say it. The other had heard it and shrugged it off as "politics as usual."

Er, you can say that again. Discounting expert opinions and stubbornly sticking to bone-headed policy ideas: Sounds pretty familiar after 8 years of George Bush, no? More Reich:

The gas tax holiday is small potatoes relative to everything else. But it's so economically stupid (it would increase demand for gas and cause prices to rise, eliminating any benefit to consumers while costing the Treasury more than $9 billion, and generate more pollution) and silly (even if she won, HRC won't be president this summer) as to be worrisome. That HRC now says she doesn't care what economists think is even more troubling.

Following the bizarre logic of discounting the advice of those who are the most learned about a given subject, one can recall an eerily familiar pattern. Global warming? Why should we put our lot in with those meddling climatologists? Force levels in Iraq? Why listen to dissenting voices at the Pentagon? All those informed opinions are really just so elitist, right? Isn't that what the average voter wants to hear? It's all a bit like a Stephen Colbert sketch come to life. Video after the jump.