I tend to think I'm a decently fair observer of politics. But one thing I've never had patience for is Republicans who don the cloak of fiscal conservatism and then threaten to light themselves on fire when military spending increases by too little -- much less go down. Maybe that's why I really appreciate this rhetorical MOAB from the voluble Rep. Barney Frank on paying for the F-22:



These arguments will come from the very people who denied that the economic recovery plan created any jobs. We have a very odd economic philosophy in Washington: It's called weaponized Keynesianism. It is the view that the government does not create jobs when it funds the building of bridges or important research or retrains workers, but when it builds airplanes that are never going to be used in combat, that is of course economic salvation.



(ht Krugman)

