Dan Mitchell sets out “The “Austerity” Debate: More Academic Evidence against Big Government” very well in this piece but my beef is the way progressives have convinced people that fiscal responsibility is a bad thing.

The common sense approach to “Fiscal Responsibility” has been labelled “Austerity” as if spending more than collected in taxes and running deficits and borrowing beyond the country’s capacity to repay without dramatic changes in tax policy is acceptable public policy.

As Dr. Mitchell points out:

“…Even I’m willing to accept that spending cuts may be painful in the short run (not because of Keynesian reasons, but simply because resources don’t instantaneously get reallocated to more productive uses).

“So if the economists who wrote this comprehensive study find that there is very little short-run dislocation associated with spending cuts, that’s powerful evidence.

“And when you then consider all the data and research showing the positive long-run effects of smaller government, this certainly suggests that the top fiscal priority should be shrinking the size and scope of government.”

Prostituting the language suggesting that fiscal responsibility is bad public policy does grave disservice to future taxpayers.