Chris
05-04-2013, 01:43 PM
Keep in mind as you read this that there never was any austerity implemented in Europe.
...After four-years-going-on-five of such economic anemia, liberals sorely need a new culprit -- especially with their favorite whipping boy, George W. Bush, now far removed from office. Enter Europe, stage left. Or rather, Europe’s “austerity,” to be more precise.
That a continent of countries, spinning like a roulette wheel of fiscal failure, now could be suddenly afflicted by austerity -- after over-spending for decades -- is a puzzler in its own right. This is to misdiagnose cure for problem -- not unlike an addict blaming detox for the shakes.
Of course, such a move by America’s liberals serves two purposes. It shifts focus away from the $620 billion tax hike slapped on the nation at year’s beginning. And even more, it protects the sizable and sudden spending surge to which they have become quite accustomed.
...Juxtaposed with this profligacy, we find the following spending “austerity”: an $85 billion sequester that took effect just two months ago. That spending cut represents a 2.3 percent reduction from where spending otherwise would have been. In our $16 trillion economy, it is only a 0.5 percent slice.
So where is the “austerity” part of this austerity?
...
@ What Austerity? (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/04/what_austerity.html#ixzz2SLoGYHTU)
...After four-years-going-on-five of such economic anemia, liberals sorely need a new culprit -- especially with their favorite whipping boy, George W. Bush, now far removed from office. Enter Europe, stage left. Or rather, Europe’s “austerity,” to be more precise.
That a continent of countries, spinning like a roulette wheel of fiscal failure, now could be suddenly afflicted by austerity -- after over-spending for decades -- is a puzzler in its own right. This is to misdiagnose cure for problem -- not unlike an addict blaming detox for the shakes.
Of course, such a move by America’s liberals serves two purposes. It shifts focus away from the $620 billion tax hike slapped on the nation at year’s beginning. And even more, it protects the sizable and sudden spending surge to which they have become quite accustomed.
...Juxtaposed with this profligacy, we find the following spending “austerity”: an $85 billion sequester that took effect just two months ago. That spending cut represents a 2.3 percent reduction from where spending otherwise would have been. In our $16 trillion economy, it is only a 0.5 percent slice.
So where is the “austerity” part of this austerity?
...
@ What Austerity? (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/04/what_austerity.html#ixzz2SLoGYHTU)