Liberal economist Paul Krugman, in his New York Times column as well as his Twitter posts, has often stressed that Republicans in Congress have a double standard when it comes to the federal deficit — which they are silent amount under GOP presidential administrations but suddenly become obsessed with after a Democratic president is sworn in. And in a Twitter thread posted on December 2, Krugman predicts that the GOP budget hawks will magically rediscover fiscal conservatism after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20.
Krugman explains:
More on fiscal issues: once Biden is in office, expect Rs to wave around a lot of charts purporting to show a dangerous long-run debt trajectory. And to be fair, long-term CBO projections show a big rise in debt 1/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 2, 2020
Krugman, on many occasions, has pointed out that the same Senate and House Republicans who had nothing to say about the federal deficit during President George W. Bush’s eight years in the White House suddenly became obsessed with it after President Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009 — only to grow silent again under Donald Trump’s presidency. The United States’ federal deficit has been enormous under Trump, but according to Krugman’s columns and tweets, it will take a Biden presidency for Republicans to start paying attention to the deficit once again.
In his thread, Krugman notes that the Congressional Budget Office’s debt projections are “driven largely by the assumption that rates will rise a lot.” The economist adds, however, that according to economists Jason Furman and Larry Summers, the CBO’s “rate increase” projections “haven’t happened”:
But what's driving those projections? Mainly it's rising interest costs — which in turn are driven largely by the assumption that rates will rise a lot 2/ pic.twitter.com/q0AjPNfrV3
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 2, 2020
But as Furman and Summers point out, CBO has consistently projected big rate increases that haven't happened 3/ https://t.co/nkaahrFS5L pic.twitter.com/oDtTo1VkgU
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 2, 2020
In other words, we're no longer living in a world in which the prospect of an aging population is the main driver of grim fiscal forecasts; instead, it's mainly a highly questionable assumption about financing costs 3/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 2, 2020
So the long-run budget outlook probably isn't much of a problem, and it's certainly not a problem requiring urgent action. There are no economic obstacles to spending what we need to spend — only political hurdles 5/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 2, 2020
Here are some responses to Krugman’s thread:
And yet, we already know McConnell will just summarily obstruct everything. You're right, depressing.
— 🔄BRIAN Retweeted (@Bri_Fi_) December 2, 2020
Clearly Congress doesn’t represent tax payers. Only rich donors
— E Holly Norman (@EHollyNorman) December 2, 2020
