Economist Paul Krugman: Get ready for the GOP budget hawks to make a raging comeback in 2021

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:

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":

Here are some responses to Krugman's thread: