Republicans know many things that arent so, and no amount of contrary evidence will get them to change their minds, wrote New York Times Columnist and Economic Sciences Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman Thursday. He didnt mention Ohio Gov. John Kasich by name, but he might as well have, given the governors continued belief in economic supply-side fairy tales that didnt work under President Ronald Reagan, or the governors personal political idol, master supply-sider Jack Kemp.

When Congressman Kasich voted against President Bill Clintons first budget, as did all other Republicans at the time, he famously promised to do something the Lord obviously doesnt want him to do. “This plan will not work, he quipped, for If it was to work, then I’d have to become a Democrat and believe that more taxes and bigger government is the answer.” It did work, and well, creating a record 22 million jobs over eight years. But Gov. Kasich remained Republican. Ignoring facts of history, Ohios now twice elected governor—the second time by less than one in four registered voters—still insists Clintons program had a bad impact. In fact, the near-recessionary economy President Clinton inherited from his predecessor, President George Herbert Walker Bush, was turned around big time, especially in his second term. President Clinton won back-to-back elections as Ohioans voted for him twice. Congressman Kasich, it should be remembered, voted to impeachment Mr. Clinton.

Gov. Kasich and other true-believers in conservative ideology are consistently confident about their theories of governance but profoundly and perpetually wrong in realty. But Republicans are back in control of both chambers of Congress and control a slew of statehouses, one of them in Columbus, where Gov. Kasichs unproven theories remain alive to not work again.

Mr. Krugman, who foresaw the housing bubble and who warned President Obamas stimulus package was undersized in large part due to early term accommodations to Republicans on infrastructure spending and business tax credits, mocked new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for taking credit for the rebounding economy. Like Gov. Kasich taking bows he didnt deserve for the jobs momentum created under his predecessor, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, Kentuckys senior U.S. Senator is taking bows for the nations robust growth under Mr. Obama. He claims its all because of “the expectation of a new Republican Congress.” Its basic Kasich to step in front of a popular parade, which he did in 2010 when he benefited from the Tea Party movement in Ohio, only to be dumped by those same leaders midway through his first term. Majority Leader McConnell is clearly working from Mr. Kasichs career performance playbook.

The former 2000 failed GOP presidential candidate, who made millions after he became a Wall Street banker for Lehman Brothers while hosting his own political gabfest on Fox News, is trying his hand again at national politics. His early sales pitch to promote Ohio was based on a CEO Magazine article in which he said the state is open for business. After four years of Gov. Kasich, CEO Magazine ranks Ohio 27th best state for business in 2014. Unfortunately for Mr. Kasich, Ohio has always been open to business, but business hasnt always been open to Ohio. Industry moved tens of thousands of jobs to other states and other countries, sadly, when the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect and made such outsourcing profitable to the company, not its workers. Over the course of a dozen years, from 1994 to 2006, Gov. Kasichs GOP colleagues, who love tax cuts as much as they do hobbling government to be handmaiden to the private sector, ran the state from stop top to bottom, controlling all statewide seats and the General Assembly.

Gov. Kasich will be remembered for stiffing his gubernatorial opponents last year when he trashed decades of debate tradition by refusing to debate and for telling reporters to stop asking questions he doesnt want to answer. His aged talking points of gloom and doom for President Obamas policy agenda have proven false, as the White House has accomplished everything Republicans said they wanted,  from lowering the deficit to lowering gas prices, to creating millions of jobs and giving millions of people a chance to afford quality health care for the first time without the tricks and traps private health insurers had used for decades. The stock market has tripled in value and inflation is a non issue. Under President Obamas leadership. the U.S. economy is again among the strongest in the world, but Gov. Kasich who loves to take credit where none is deserved, dares not give President Obama any credit, another example of the same childish, mind-game abstinence he displayed last year when he refused to mention his opponents name.

In language everyone can understand, Mr. Krugman said in Voodoo Time Machine that everyone makes predictions that turn out to have been wrong. It’s a complicated world out there, and nobody’s perfect. The point, however, is that Congress is now controlled by men who never acknowledge error, let alone learn from their mistakes, he said. meanwhile, Gov. Kasich is allowed to continue his decades-old zombie lies that the nation needs a balanced budget amendment, that Obamacare is a disaster, that tax cuts for the wealthy create jobs. that unions are bad and lax government regulation is good.

A Times columnist for 15 years, Mr. Krugman drives home his point we’re looking at a political subculture in which ideological tenets are simply not to be questioned, no matter what. Supply-side economics is valid no matter what actually happens to the economy, guaranteed health insurance must be a failure even if it’s working, and anyone who points out the troubling facts is ipso facto an enemy.