Posted 11/3//2010

AMERICA: WILL IT FOLLOW BRITAIN, OR FRANCE?

Now that the United States has a new Congress, will the newly elected keep their promises to cut government spending and reduce the size of the deficit?

Will the Tea Partiers retain their integrity before the lobbyists jump on them with bushels of $100 bills?

In short, will our leaders follow the fiscal leadership of Britain or France?

Britain is in nearly as bad financial shape as we are. The United Kingdom’s public deficit is 11.5% of its economic output. The U.S.'s public deficit is slightly less, 10.7%.

On the brink of bankruptcy, British conservatives and liberals buried the hatchet long enough to come together with a rescue plan for the country.

Government departments will be cut 19% on average. Close to 500,000 public workers will be fired. The military will give up their new aircraft carrier program, and the police will live on 4% less funding. On top of the cuts, the Value Added Tax (VAT) on consumer goods will be raised from 17.5% to 20%.

Everybody in Great Britain is going to live poorer. They will live that way so that their country can survive. They will sacrifice so that the expression "Tthere will always be an England" will continue to ring true.

Britain passed this drastic economic plan because the conservatives were able to suppress their radicals (who wanted to lower taxes), while the liberals were beating down their radicals (who wanted to increase government spending).

Many other European countries are cutting government spending significantly — even prosperous Germany, which has even hit its bankers hard. "Too big to fail" will no longer work in Germany, even as it continues to thrive in the U.S.

Everybody in Europe seems to be into real reform except the French. They seem to prefer wishful thinking and rioting.

Whose example will America’s new Congress follow?

If we bite the bullet and follow British reforms, the costs will be high:

1. Government spending will be cut over 15%. No one, from Medicare to the military, will be spared.

2. Nearly two million public sector workers will be let go.

3. Failed departments like Commerce and Energy could be scrapped.

4. The military might have to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan while giving up the F-35 joint strike fighter program.

5. A federal sales tax of 14% will be added to most consumer goods.

6. The federal gasoline tax will be sharply increased.

7. The mortgage interest deduction will be halved.

Which would you bet on?

A. Congress engages in French-style wishful thinking.

B. Congress adopts British-style sacrifice.

C. Congress passes the problem onto the grandchildren.

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