Borrow to cut taxes today, and people just save for tomorrow's tax bill

Ricardian equivalence holds that if a government cuts taxes by borrowing rather than raising revenue, forward-looking households anticipate the future taxes needed to repay that debt. They save the windfall instead of spending it, leaving total demand unchanged. David Ricardo raised the logic in 1820 without fully endorsing it; economist Robert Barro revived and formalised it in 1974.

— Robert J. Barro, Are Government Bonds Net Wealth? — Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 82, No. 6, 1974