The lamestream media is going into over-drive here in the United States spinning an tangled web of lies designed deceive the American Public about the French and Greek elections, and their relation to Obama economic policies.
To hear the media in the U.S. tell it, voters in France and Greece have rejected "Austerity measures" and instead favor more government spending as a solution to the ills of the French, Greek and larger EU economy. To hear incoming French President Hollande tell it, the way to prosperity is to hike income taxes on anyone making more than $1 million Euro's up to 75%, thereby enabling more Government spending.
Facts are always pesky things, so let's put them on the table right now.
First, there have been no Austerity programs implemented anywhere in the EU. Not a single budget cut has been made in either Greece or France. Rather, Greece has taken two "bailouts" largely on the backs of German taxpayers to the tune of $80,000,000,000 Euro's, which is roughly triple that of the Greek economy as a whole. In return, the Greek Government hasn't cut a single program or government "benefit", rather the social spending and government benefits have continued unabated and Greece now finds itself in the position of getting ready to ask for a third bailout and is on the verge of expulsion from the EU. Where are the budget cuts, and where's the accountability for wasting $80,000,000,000 Euro's, largely from German taxpayers?
Second, Sarkozy for all his faults at least saw what was happening in Greece and tried preventing it in France. The current government budget of France is just over 80% of the country's total economic output for a single year. Contrast that to the United States in which our Government's spending has exceeded 100% of economic output for a single year!
Sarkozy recognized the path France was on and seeing the results of excessive government spending in Greece decided to change course and abandon some of his largely Socialist tendencies. Sarkozy also recognized that he couldn't tax his way out of the problem as the problem was in fact too much government spending. Enter Sarkozy's proposal to increase the overly generous retirement age by two years. The average Frenchman retires at age 55, often with full salary and pension benefits. Sarkozy proposed to increase that to 57 years of age. Sarkozy proposed no changes in tax rates, and no cuts in Government spending or benefits. The country goes into an uproar over a two year increase in the retirement age.
Enter Francois Hollande who promised to roll back all austerity programs and increase government spending (read that: benefits) to "grow" the economy by raising taxes to 75% on the "wealthy." Sound familiar?
While the Obama Administration likes to ignore decades of economic data that shows the way to growth through reduced government spending and reduced taxes that actually increase revenue to the Government, they along with their willing whores in the lamestream media point to one single election event in France as "validation" of Obama spending $6.2 TRILLION dollars and driving up the national debt to "grow" the economy.
Again, facts are pesky things so let's put some more on the table.
First, Government Spending in the U.S. has not grown the economy. There are three million less jobs today, than there was when Obama first took office. Many of those jobs have moved overseas and will never come back. In fact, the Bureau of Labor & Statistics at Obama's behest has stopped counting these jobs in total, which has artificially reduced the unemployment rate painting a false-positive picture of the economy.
Second, the Obama Administration is cooking the books on unemployment. Even the liberal left-wing CNN reported last Thursday evening that the "real" unemployment rate in the United States is closer to 11-12%. God Bless CNN for at least trying to tell the truth this time, the reality is the Obama Administration changed how unemployment numbers are calculated, using the old forumla that applied to Clinton through Bush, the actual rate is closer to 15-16%.
Third, the path we're currently on is not sustainable. If a Government could spend it's way to economic prosperity, then why isn't Greece an economic super-power right now? After all, the Greek Government received bailouts equivalent to three times their annual economic output and spent it all. Where's Greece's economic activity? Still contracting, by an annual rate of 18-20%, that's where.
Workforce participation, that is the percentage of working age adults capable and eligible to work who want jobs, has fallen to a 40 year low. As a percentage of the American population, the Bureau of Labor & Statistics is reporting that fewer American's are working and carrying the tax burden now than during the last four decades. These folks have given up and stopped looking for work and are applying in massive numbers for Social Security Disability and other Government "benefits" to survive. That means two things: first the tax burden on those who remain working has increased and second, there are more tax CONSUMERS in this country than there are actual net TAX PAYERS. This scenario just isn't sustainable despire the spin from the Obama Administration and their willing prostitutes in the media.
The real message from Greece and France my friends is this: Once one is subjogated to dependence on the Government for their daily sustinence and existence, they will not allow those "benefits" to be taken away from them. Obama has understood this message for a long, long time dating back to his days as a Community Organizer in Chicago. It is the heart of Obama's class warfare, dividing up American's along every racial, economic and gender line he can find.
The real question is this: Will American's look at the failed model in Europe and recognize that Government simply cannot be all things to all people, and put Government back in it's proper limited role, or will we go down the same failed path of European Socialist countries?
Alexis De Toqueville, ironically a Frenchman once said "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
The problem with Socialism is as Margaret Thatcher once stated is that it "only works until you run out of other people's money."
We're out of money and rapidly running out of time. It should be self evident that the path we're on isn't sustainable, and that the ending isn't going to be pretty for Greece, France, and several other European Socilist model countries (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Spain.)
More than sixty years of economic data tells us that the way back to prosperity is reducing government spending, and reducing taxes to spur economic growth. No matter how the Obama Administration tries spinning one Election event as justification for it's over-taxing, over-spending, Government interventionist policies, nothing changes sixty years of economic data and fact.
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