Paul Ryan's budget plan promises to "help grow our economy today." Paul Krugman says that's rubbish.
The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist wrote in a blog post Wednesday that Ryan's latest budget proposal would hurt the economy by slashing government spending, including repealing Obamacare's health insurance expansion.
"This particular 'Path to Prosperity' is, in the short to medium term, very much a path to continued depression," Krugman wrote. "Luckily it isn't going to happen."
Ryan's proposal, which would cut the budget by $4.6 trillion over 10 years, slashes funding for government programs that help the poor, like Medicaid. Though the plan is unlikely to become law, if it were implemented, it would shrink the U.S. economy and eliminate 2 million jobs in 2014 alone, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Krugman, who called Ryan's plan cruel yesterday, has been criticizing Ryan for years. But Ryan is fighting back. He called Krugman's economic doctrine "sugar-high economics" in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday and said that Krugman's argument that boosting government spending helps the economy is "obviously... not true."