RUSH: Paul Krugman was finally put in his place on ABC yesterday by Mary Matalin. A lot of people don’t understand Paul Krugman’s appeal to the extreme left. I have to explain it to ’em. Krugman is the Bible to the extreme left. He’s a Nobel Prize winner. He’s a New York Times columnist. That is 85% of it. He’s in the New York Times, that’s all you need. It’s the same with Thomas Friedman, a glittering jewel of colossal ignorance. I mean, Thomas Friedman is out there, “We need to be more like China. We need to be more like China.” He’s actually got a piece, China is aggressively, properly cutting down on the size of homes people can build. And China’s going great guns into solar.

China’s losing their rear end in solar because there have been so many solar panels manufactured, there’s not a market for ’em, they’re losing their shirts on solar in China just as everybody is here. And still Thomas Friedman’s out touting this stuff, and he’s saying the ChiCom government’s doing the right thing by telling people they can’t build big houses. You ought to see a picture of the house that Thomas Friedman lives in. This thing may be 30,000 square feet. His swimming pool is bigger than your living room and master bedroom combined. It’s his wife’s money, but it doesn’t matter. He’s still living in the House. Thomas L. Friedman doesn’t know what he’s talking about half the time, but he’s in the New York Times and that’s all it takes, he’s brilliant.

Friends of mine down here, golf buddies, Tom Friedman comes to town, they go to some square arts luncheon. They can’t wait to get there, Thomas L. Friedman. “He’s an idiot,” I said, “doesn’t even know what he’s talking about.”

“It’s the New York Times.”

“Yeah, that’s even worse.”

Well, Krugman is the same. Paul Krugman, the ferret-like Paul Krugman, these leftists love Krugman because he is them. He is a mad — and I’m talking about sanity — mad, extreme, angry, lying leftist who makes it up. But because his venom is directed at conservatives and Republicans, he is loved and adored. So yesterday he was on This Week during the roundtable, George Stephanopoulos, got George Will on there and Mary Matalin I think is there. I don’t know if George Will was there yesterday or not, but Mary Matalin was, and Carville was there, and they’re having a discussion about the presidential debate, and Stephanopoulos said, “This was a brand-new format where Jim Lehrer said he basically wanted to get out of the way, and he says, against a lot of critics, he was effective in doing that.”

KRUGMAN: I don’t know whether to blame Lehrer or to blame the president, but it was kind of amazing, ’cause Romney was not only saying things that are not true, he’s saying things that his own campaign had previously said weren’t true. The one that got me was not the stuff about taxes, but the thing about covering people with preexisting conditions. Which his plan does not. Which he has said that before and his campaign has walked it back in the past. And there he was right again saying, “Well, my plan covers preexisting conditions,” which is displaying a kind of contempt for the public.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you think it’s the moderator’s job to call him on it, not President Obama’s job?

KRUGMAN: No, I’m not sure whose job it is. But it is… But, you know, there’s a contempt for — for the whole process. He just doesn’t know how to handle flat-out untruths.

MATALIN: Oh… (big sigh)

RUSH: So the press doesn’t know how to handle Romney’s lies- Obama didn’t know how to handle Romney’s lies. These guys are lying through their teeth, and the press didn’t know how to handle it. Can you believe this? The little bed wetters at the — at the Democrat Underground and so, they just cream over this. They just love Krugman. They just love this guy, and he’s a classic. He’s a Nobel Prize winner, an economist. But he’s a know-nothing, he’s a pure partisan, which is fine and okay, but he’s never right! Paul Krugman economics would end this country. He thinks we’re not spending enough, for example. Government isn’t big enough yet. That’s where Obama’s blown it. So, anyway, he continued on here, and Mary Matalin couldn’t take it anymore.

KRUGMAN: When you say, “Our plan covers preexisting conditions,” when it doesn’t and when your own campaign has admitted in the past that it doesn’t, what do you say?

MATALIN: First of all, that’s not —

KRUGMAN: That’s a flat-out denial!

MATALIN: Can I ask you: You have mischaracterized and you have lied about every position and every particular of the Ryan plan on Medicare, from the efficiency of Medicare administration to calling it a voucher plan.

KRUGMAN: Mmmm, well, it’s a voucher plan.

MATALIN: So you’re hardly credible on calling somebody else a liar.

RUSH: Somebody finally took it to Krugman! They are. They’re out calling Ryan’s Medicare plan a “voucher plan.” Obama did it in the debate. It isn’t! If you’re 55 and older, you can stay on Medicare as it is. If you’re younger than 55 and we reform the program, you’re gonna have the option to stay in Medicare as it is. Nobody is ever gonna be forcing you into a voucher. The Obama administration’s gonna be forcing you into government-run health care if you’re not careful, but Ryan’s not gonna force you into anything.

You’d be a fool not to take the voucher option, but that’s for another day. The voucher option is the fix. But if you’re 55 or older, you don’t have to do it, and Krugman’s lying through his teeth about it, as is Obama — and Mary Matalin called him on it. And again: He’s not used to be called a liar. Nobody ever dares! Paul Krugman, he’s the world’s second most authority, Obama being first. Now, Friedman thinks he’s smarter than both of them. I mean it’s just an absolute joke, folks.