Reading over Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman’s responses to my friend Brian Riedl, what stands out is the palpable disrespect for Brian, and for University of Chicago economist John Cochrane, and for almost anyone who disagrees with them. Brian has ably defended his ideas here, and Cochrane has ably and cheerfully weathered a John Cassidy interrogation on the same topic, here.

I would only add this: Ignore the playground insults and you’ll notice that DeLong and Krugman are teeter-tottering on a powder keg. The U.S. is in terrible fiscal shape, and the massive borrowing that paid for the stimulus has only made the situation worse. DeLong writes that the economist John Taylor may have a point when he suggests that unsustainable deficit spending will cause our borrowing costs to rise, perhaps substantially, but that “the spike in interest rates simply did not happen” after we passed the stimulus.

Writes Krugman, “There’s no reason to panic about budget prospects for the next few years, or even for the next decade. Consider, for example, what the latest budget proposal from the Obama administration says about interest payments on federal debt; according to the projections, a decade from now they’ll have risen to 3.5 percent of G.D.P. How scary is that?”

Not scary at all! Assuming, of course, that the administration’s predictions about the entire economy for the next ten years are as accurate as its predictions about the impact of the stimulus. Oh, wait . . .

The problem with this view is that interest rates won’t spike to reflect what is arguably the real creditworthiness of the U.S. government — until they do. At which point, I’m sure, DeLong and Krugman will be ready with “It was the tax cuts! It was the wars!” And they will have a point. But it was also the stimulus. (And above all, the entitlements.) And I wonder whether DeLong and Krugman will reconsider the wisdom of “fighting” this recession with a trillion dollars of borrowed money, given the risks we faced, and approach these debates more modestly, or if they will continue to write so obnoxiously.

Oh, who am I kidding? It will probably be much worse.