Taking to Twitter to respond to outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) whining about liberal billionaires helping Democrats take back the House in the midterms, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman ridiculed the politician long seen as a puppet for wealthy conservatives like the Koch Brothers.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Ryan blamed GOP House losses in California on wealthy liberal contributors by lamenting, “There were a lot of seats in California we should have won and we got massively outspent. If you’ve got a couple of billionaires dropping $100 million on your head, that leaves a mark.”
Krugman, who writes a column for the New York Times, found Ryan's comment more than a little hypocritical.
"I didn't exactly see this coming: Republicans blaming their midterm shellacking on the nefarious influence of billionaires," Krugman tweeted before linking to a screenshot of Ryan's comment juxtaposed with a Politico article headlined: "Sheldon Adelson kicks in $30M to stop Democratic House takeover."
Krugman then blew up Ryan's complaint with a series of tweets you can see below:
I didn't exactly see this coming: Republicans blaming their midterm shellacking on the nefarious influence of billi… https://t.co/FkXimauJ6z— Paul Krugman (@Paul Krugman) 1543673792.0
I found this article with a Google search, which looked like this 2/ https://t.co/2djFewbrYB— Paul Krugman (@Paul Krugman) 1543673843.0
Meanwhile, I've been reading a really interesting new political science book, which tells us that billionaires are,… https://t.co/RaO0yP9tJV— Paul Krugman (@Paul Krugman) 1543673990.0
For the most part, however, they do it quietly, because their positions are so unpopular. The relatively small numb… https://t.co/USuYFxl3L3— Paul Krugman (@Paul Krugman) 1543674062.0
What's worth noting, however, is that we're seeing another illustration of the right's bottomless cynicism. They'll… https://t.co/Hk6el3JrHz— Paul Krugman (@Paul Krugman) 1543674144.0
