I Feel Much Better Now

Hats off to Terry Gross for setting up this head-to-head, no-holds-barred battle between Paul Krugman and Stewart Butler of the Heritage Foundation. The conversation went something like this:

Gross: How would you characterize the U.S. fiscal situation today?
Butler: Terrible, awful.
Krugman: Atrocious, indefensible.
Butler: All serious economists agree on this.
Krugman: Left or right, you can't argue with the math. We agree the situation stinks.
Gross: Well, what about China - don't they buy a lot of treasury bonds?
Krugman: Yeah, we're both screwed. If they even stop we'll have an economic disaster, and since we're they're biggest customer, they're screwed too.
Butler: Yup.
Gross: So what should we do?
Krugman: Raise taxes to the highest level in the history of this country.
Butler: Cut essential services, particularly health care for old people.
Gross: Well, thanks to both of you for joining us.