Former Enron advisor, the elfin Paul Krugman is making an argument that President Obama embraces and which is being echoed by most of the looney-left. The premise is that Mr. Obama spoke correctly when he declared that “The private sector is doing fine,” and what we need is more public employment, specifically firemen, policemen and teachers.

Krugman has gone so far as to quantify what we would experience in a “normal” recovery, one in which evil Republicans weren’t arbitrarily starving state and municipal governments intending to put people at risk of limb, life and property . . . not to mention advancing illiterates through our government-run schools. (Oh wait! We do that already!) The inaptly named Joy Behar in characteristic liberal / progressive grace embraces Krugman (that’s an ugly thought) and suggests of Mitt Romney,  “I’d like to see his house burn, one of his millions of houses burning down.” During an interview with the liberal website Mediaite, Behar added, “Who’s he going to call, the Mormon fire patrol?” (It is impressive how Behar segued from arson advocacy to religious bigotry in one short breath.)

In Krugman’s view, we are 1,400,000 civil servants short of what a “normal” recovery would produce, the assumption being that public sector employment must rise relentlessly in relationship to private employment, economic growth, and tax collections and have no relationship to need, demand, or ability to pay. Professional welfare is  what we’ll call it.

Alas, the elbow in Krugman’s eye is that, as Senator Pat Moynihan is reported to have said, “You can have your own opinion but not your own facts.”  And the facts are that just last week, the FBI reported a sharp decline in crime throughout America including arson – even in Behar’s neighborhood. We simply have no need or demand for additional police and fire services.

Clearly Krugman is agitating for more civil servants not because we need them, but because they pay dues to their unions which are then recycled to Democrat politicians.  And our incurious President  pushes for Krugman’s reasons and because he simply doesn’t understand our economy, or any other.  But, as Scott Walker showed in Wisconsin, not a single teacher need be laid-off, although many should be in favor of those who really do teach.

Romney surrogates would be wise to emphasize that while we all love our civil servants – except those at the Motor Vehicle Administration – taxing private wealth creators for even one extra paycheck is inefficient welfare.