The usually perceptive Ezra Klein titles today’s Wonkbook “We know what to do. We just can’t seem to do it.” Um, who is this “we” of whom he speaks?

Ezra cites John Quiggin and Henry Farrell on what needs to be done in Europe, and they do indeed have it right. But it’s hard to think of anyone in a position of authority in Europe who agrees with them; bear in mind that European leaders are only just now, maybe, acknowledging that possibly their fantasies about expansionary austerity weren’t quite right. And Jonathan Portes points us to David Cameron saying that the route to prosperity is for everyone to spend less.

Meanwhile, at home, Ezra says that we should

proceed with the mixture of short-term support and long-term deficit reduction and tax reform that most every economist understands to be the appropriate path forward for our economy

Most every economist? John Cogan and John Taylor are basically saying permanent tax cuts or bust, not to mention giving the Reagan tax cuts credit for Paul Volcker’s monetary policy. And they’re among the most reasonable players for Team Republican, sufficiently so that it’s a good bet that they don’t actually believe what they’re saying. I’d guess that at least half of university macroeconomists are either real business cycle types or take a Taylor-like position that they may be Keynesian in theory, but they oppose anything Keynesian in practice, at least if a Democrat holds the White House.

What Ezra is doing here is a minor version of the all too common sin of presenting what is, in political terms, a moderately left of center position and treating it as the obviously correct policy. There’s a reason for that: objectively, it is in fact the obviously correct policy. But you won’t get anyone on the right admitting that.

At least Ezra isn’t committing the next step in this fallacy: arguing that we need a centrist candidate — Chris Christie, you broke our hearts! — to enunciate a position between the extremes of right and left, which happens to be, um, exactly the position the Obama administration already holds.