Two prominent economists on the left and right have described the nation's economic planning as so misguided as to be deeply corrupt.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, left, an appointee under the Democratic President Bill Clinton, published a column describing the nation's path as shaped by the tea party as “near treasonous.” He called the effort to cut spending “a cruel hoax” because its basis is an ideological pursuit of power, thus hurting the public needlessly via phony economic history.

Paul Craig Roberts, at right, a prominent conservative for many years in the Reagan Administration and elsewhere, has been at least as hard-hitting as Reich on many of the same themes.

The most recent Roberts column, The Missing Recovery, argues that recent governments of both parties deliberately deceive the public with their official economic statistics, and otherwise sell out the public interest. He uses the term “treason” and its synonyms primarily for U.S. powerbrokers hurting the country on war-mongering instead of crippling the economy. But he matches Reich in many other respects in disdain for economic policy bromides.

In underscoring the loss of America's historic freedoms, Roberts often describes government as by “The Bush-Obama Regime” and law enforcement as by the “The Justice Department (sic).” His word choice mocks traditional Republican versus Democratic political pundity offered by what Roberts likes to call “the presstitutes” in the mass media.

Such commentary, excerpted below, is relevant for the Justice Integrity Project, which is focused on official corruption. We strive to be non-partisan while not pulling our punches. Thanks to a few voices like Reich and Roberts, we can convey a a growing but largely hidden fear among Washington observers regarding a serious breakdown in economic policy, as well as other governance. The danger is illustrated by the recent book by my friend Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, both distinguished Washington commentators: It's Even Worse Than it Looks.