Paul Krugman should not be stressing the temporary reduction in the federal deficit. After all, the deficit went up when the federal government extended the Bush tax cuts and reduced withholding taxes during the two years prior to the election. Now that a portion of the Bush tax cuts have been taken away, and withholding taxes have returned to prior rates, the immediate effect is to reduce the deficit.

We need to create a signifcant number of federal income tax paying jobs and bring entitlement costs under control in order to reduce the deficit over the long run.