Might have guessed the fell hand of Harvard was at work. Townhall slips us the mickey with this quote of a letter supposedly written by Feldstein to Greg Mankiw:
However, not everyone is as concerned about an imminent default as Lew.
Martin Feldstein, Harvard University economics professor and President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research, wrote that despite cries from the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and politicians, a default is very unlikely:
“The US government collects enough in taxes each month to finance the interest on the debt, etc. The government may not be able to separate all accounts into "pay" and "no pay" groups but it can certainly identify the interest payments. An inability to borrow would have serious economic consequences if it lasted for any sustained period but it would not have to threaten our credit standing.”
What the writer of the Townhall essay and, one sees, our Tea Partiers fail to grasp is the precise meaning of the words "concern" "default" "unlikely" and "identify the interest payments." You might also look back up and see the phrase "The government may not be able to separate all accounts into "pay" and "no pay" groups but..." and marvel at the work that "may not" does.
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