As debate rages about whether the Bush era tax cuts should be continued, Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman weighs in with sharp criticism of wealthy people who want to maintain their reductions.

If Congress doesn’t act before Dec. 31, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will disappear for everyone. President Barack Obama and many Democrats favor continuing the cuts only for those with annual income of less than $200,000. Republicans want to extend the reductions for everyone.

And what of the wealthy who want to maintain their lower tax rates?

“Self-pity among the privileged has become acceptable, even fashionable,” Krugman writes in The New York Times.

“Tax-cut advocates used to pretend that they were mainly concerned about helping typical American families. Even tax breaks for the rich were justified in terms of trickle-down economics. . . . These days, however, tax-cutters are hardly even trying to make the trickle-down case.”

Instead, they are claiming that people making $400,000 or $500,000 a year aren’t rich, he says.

“And among the undeniably rich, a belligerent sense of entitlement has taken hold: it’s their money, and they have the right to keep it,” Krugman writes.

Harvard economist Martin Feldstein says raising taxes on the wealthy risks sending the economy into another recession.

“We should extend all of the Bush tax cuts for two years, and we will have a clean slate and see where the economy is,” he told Bloomberg.