The Gist: Republican (and Libertarian) Politicians cherry-pick economic philosopher's ideas out of context, when it suits their interests, essentially ignoring the hypocrisy and ignorance of their actions.
Austrian Economist, Friedrich von Hayek, was a bad philosopher, who based his arguments upon false premises, but his obscure ideas have been misinterpreted for a new era.
Premise 1: The economy is incomprehensibly complex (like the Weather)
Premise 2: Government economic policy can only harm the economy
Premise 3: Government should not have a monopoly on ANY service it provides (i.e. military)
"They just root for gridlock: a divided Congress in a prolonged stalemate with the White House. They feel that, within our system, the most Hayekian thing they can hope for is a government incapable of doing anything.To be true to Hayek's economic philosophy one must embrase his "generality norm" a belief that any government program must help be available to all. This would eliminate all corporate subsidies (including agriculture) and expand Medicare to all. The Austrian School of Economics rejects all government intervention in "Free Market" (i.e. Capitalist) systems. This would close all the tax loopholes that exist, like the Mortgage and Child deductions. Hayek even advocated for government to provide a base-income to all poor citizens and nationalized health-care programs.
"How do you make plans for the future if you don't believe in economic forecasts?"Also see Milton Friedman, John Maynard Keynes, The Chicago School Critique, Ayn Rand's view of Hayek as "pure poison" (likely because Hayek's ideas justify socialism, and in Rand's view, therefore support the very types of incompetent parasitical bureaucracy that she feared would steal the value of the the work of inventors and creative minds), FreedomWorks, Peter Botettke of George Mason University and "The Review of Austrian Economics",
