Since the producers of ABC’s This Week apparently have no regard for their journalistic credibility, there should be a rule that George Will not be allowed to speak unless Paul Krugman can discourage and clean up the disinformation.

Anyone who follows This Week knows there is a strong correlation between the absurdity of Will’s statements and Krugman’s absence. Today, Krumgan was not there, freeing Will to express these gems (and I only caught the last 15 minutes):

Will on whether we need another stimulus: Bush had his stimulus in early 2008 and unemployment increased; Since Obama’s stimulus, unemployment has gotten even worse. Therefore, anyone who argues for another stimulus can’t count to three.

Will: The only result from the Obama stimulus was to prevent some states from firing unionized state employees (and that’s bad because workers who are in unions deserve to be laid off).

There should be another rule that Bob Woodward and Cokie Roberts never be asked their opinions, ever.

Bob Woodward: No one has every explained how a stimulus changes the economic fundamentals, so why should we do this? [Apparently, Krugman, Galbraith, DeLong, Baker, Stiglitz et al have never written on this topic, nor did this guy.]

Cokie Roberts: there’s no political will for a new stimulus; after all, neither she nor George Will nor Bob Woodward understand it.

Cokie Roberts explains the politics of health reform: The political reality is that the Senate can’t agree on a bill; so the House bill will be out there calling for $500 billion in new taxes, so health care reform won’t be supported.

Cokie was unable to report in the same thought that the House-proposed $500 billion would be transferred only from the very wealthiest Americans — people like Woodward, Roberts and George Will (who would prefer to tax everyone else), that it’s over 10 years, that it’s offset by comparable amounts in reduced Medicare payments. Nor can she recall that in the exchange, we would provide coverage for nearly 40 million more Americans and end fraudulent practices like rescission, end prior condition exclusions and create a public choice for everyone else.

But ignoring all those facts, and failing to note massive public support for a public plan and and willingness to pay higher taxes to achieve expanded coverage, Cokie concludes health care reform will be unpopular because . . . the Democrats want to raise $500 billion in new taxes. Why didn’t Stephanopoulus just invite John Boehner so we would know not to watch?

Sincere condolences to Sam Donaldson and Donna Brazile who valiantly tried to counter this avalanche of nonsense. ABC doesn’t seem to mind misinforming Americans as long as we watch. So don’t.

Probably not the worst, stupidest panel ever, but I don’t watch Fox.

Update: I spoke too soon. Bob Schieffer continues the decline of Face the Nation by asking two lame questions on health care, because he really wants to spend more time asking about Sarah Palin, whose perils and coverage are making us all dumber.