Krugman laments he was 'unready' to debate Scarborough on economics

In a debate aired Monday night, MSNBC's conservative pundit Joe Scarborough faced off with economist and columnist Paul Krugman over America's debt, deficit and level of spending.

Krugman, a dogged proponent of deficit spending as a way to stimulate the economy, admitted before the show aired that Scarborough had gotten the better of him on points, comparing his performance to President Barack Obama's first debate with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Denver.

"I was tired, cranky, and unready for the blizzard of misleading factoids and diversionary stuff," he lamented. "Oh, and I wasn’t prepared for Joe Scarborough’s slipperiness about what he actually advocates (he’s for more spending in the near term? Who knew?)."

Scarborough admitted in the debate that he supports "an extra $200 billion" of additional yearly domestic spending on infrastructure and education in the near term because President Dwight D. Eisenhower did something similar when the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik satellite.

"I talk about it all the time," the MSNBC host insisted. "I go around and I talk to Republicans all the time, and I'll tell you the example I use: Ike, 1957, Sputnik goes up. What does Dwight Eisenhower do? Well, he invests in a program to put our own satellite up in space, but he also invests in science and creating a new generation of scientists."

Eisenhower, as many modern liberals point out, would not have been able to do those things if it weren't for America's progressive tax structure at the time, which hit the highest earners with a marginal income tax rate over 90 percent -- something Republicans today would balk at, to say the least.

The full interview is embedded below an excerpt published to YouTube.

This excerpt is from YouTube, published March 4, 2013.

This video is from "The Charlie Rose Show," aired March 4, 2013.

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Updated from an original version.