Krugman: There is no deficit problem

[Benj]

Not to mention the 11.5 trillion of 'debt' in the hands of the public can simply be bought into non-existence by the Fed.  They're doing so right now at the rate of 85 billion per month.

With the side effect of making interest rates abysmally low, which is not something we need to encourage as a long term solution.

Maybe not, but it does tell us that now is the time for government to be incurring debt rather than avoiding it.