On ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, Paul Krugman noted that government spending per capita has gone down to the lowest point since the 1950s, and that as a result the country has actually entered a time of austerity much like what Republicans are calling for. “The bitter irony,” Krugman says, is that in light of the struggling economy, “it may lead to the defeat of this president.”
“This is real government spending, so it’s federal, state and local combined, deflated, you know, adjusted for population growth and inflation, and it is plunging,” Krugman said, citing cuts on the state and local level are largely to blame for the problem.
We’re actually practicing government austerity on a scale that we haven’t seen in 60 years. It’s not the president’s policy. In effect, we’ve already got the policies that Republicans say they will impose if they take the election, and yet, of course, it may lead to the defeat of this president.
