Posted at 11:45 a.m. on Dec. 7, 2012
Paul Krugman responds to a recent op-ed by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) in which Jindal seemed to equate the “fiscal cliff” — which will reduce the deficit through spending cuts and tax increases — with the national debt itself.
“There’s nothing in that piece even hinting that the looming problem is spending cuts and tax increases that will shrink the deficit too soon; and his big policy ideas would actually make the lurch to austerity worse.”
“Probably Jindal never talks to anyone who will quietly explain that the fiscal cliff is a problem because, well, Keynesian economics is basically right, and you really don’t want austerity in a depressed economy. So he has some vague notion that it’s about the wages of fiscal irresponsibility, which it isn’t, and apparently believes that he knows enough to pontificate.”
