Tag Archives: Austerity

France will have a new President.

Yesterday in France, the Socialist Francois Hollande defeated the sitting French President:

…Hollande defeated centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday…

It seems that the President-elect ran on a platform of austerity-rejection:

Hollande has promised more government spending and higher taxes — including a 75-percent income tax on the rich — and wants to re-negotiate a European treaty on trimming budgets to avoid more debt crises of the kind facing Greece.

I’ve always believed the left when they claim that Europe is undergoing a time of “fiscal austerity.”  Then I bumped in Coyote, who questioned it:

It is almost impossible to spot this mythical austerity beast in action in these European countries.  Sure, they talk about austerity, and deficit reduction, and spending increases, but if such talk were reality we would have a balanced budget in this country.  If one looks at actual government spending in European nations, its impossible to find a substantial decline.  Perhaps they are talking about tax increases, which I would oppose and have been occurring, but I doubt the Left is complaining about tax increases.

Seriously, I would post the chart showing the spending declines but I can’t because I keep following links and have yet to find one.  I keep seeing quotes about “commitment” to austerity, but no actual evidence of such.

So, I thought I would look.

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