Arnold Kling notes that the debate over the stimulus has become a pure left-right affair. To which Will Wilkinson adds:

Well, I am appalled. But also confused, since I didn’t think that most mainstream economists who also happen to be Democrats were “neo-Galbraithians.” Arnold says there is pretty much no evidence that neo-Galbraithian policy is good for a recession. As far as I know, there’s pretty much no evidence that neo-Galbraithian policy is good for the economy generally. But what mainstream economists who are also loyal Democrats actually says that it is? That’s what’s confusing to me. My sense was that there was a pretty solid non-partisan professional consensus against neo-Galbraithianism. So how come the stimulus debate is shaping up as if mainstream Democratic economists do want the public sector to crowd out the private sector? What gives?