Washington Is Getting It All Wrong

Talk in Washington lately has been all about cutting deficits and balancing budgets, but not enough about what the American people are really worried about: unemployment and a rotting economy.

The lack of appropriate discourse in Washington today is a major problem, Paul Krugman writes, with politicians and pundits wrongly insisting that there are no short-term fixes and we should focus on long-run solutions such as “entitlement reform.” —BF

Paul Krugman in The New York Times:

For the fact is that right now the economy desperately needs a short-run fix. When you’re bleeding profusely from an open wound, you want a doctor who binds that wound up, not a doctor who lectures you on the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as you get older. When millions of willing and able workers are unemployed, and economic potential is going to waste to the tune of almost $1 trillion a year, you want policy makers who work on a fast recovery, not people who lecture you on the need for long-run fiscal sustainability.

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