Progress Illinois

Sen. Hillary Clinton, a renowned policy enthusiast, suddenly wants no part of the entire economics discipline because economists are by definition "elite" and can't formulate ideas that benefit working Americans ... or something:

In ignoring a question about whether any prominent economist embraces the gas tax holiday, Clinton defended her proposal and attacked "this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans."

"I'm not going to put my lot in with economists," Clinton said in a town hall meeting organized by ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." "When the federal government, through the Fed and Treasury, gave $30 billion in a bailout to Bear Stearns, I didn't hear anybody jump in and say, 'That's not going according to the market, that's rewarding irresponsible behavior.' "

Clinton must have had a busy week in mid-March, because she apparently missed a boatload of economists sounding off on the Bear Stearns bailout:

- Dean Baker: "Instead of giving more money to troubled banks, [the Fed] should give less."

- Jared Bernstein: "At the heart of the bailout is the Fed taking on the very smelliest part of the BS portfolio: the mortgatge debt. I’d like to know what we’re getting in return (and Mr. Paulson, the answer: “smoothly functioning markets” is unacceptable)."

- Even Paul Krugman, who has largely supported Clinton, got in on the act: "Bear, in other words, deserved to be allowed to fail — both on the merits and to teach Wall Street not to expect someone else to clean up its messes."

And wouldn't you know it, all three of these economists -- Baker, Bernstein, and Krugman -- are now criticizing Clinton's proposal to suspend the federal gas tax this proposal.