Tea Party Tory
(The American Conservative) -- by Patrick J. Buchanan
Before the Tea Party philosophy is ever even tested in America, it will have succeeded, or it will have failed, in Great Britain.
For in David Cameron the Brits have a prime minister who can fairly be described as a Tea Party Tory. Casting aside the guidance of Lord Keynes — government-induced deficits are the right remedy for recessions — Cameron has bet his own and his party’s future on the new austerity. He is making Maggie Thatcher look like Tip O’Neill.
Two headlines Thursday testify that the Tories have seized the Tea Party banner. First was the headline in The Washington Times, “Tea Party Urges Drastic Cutting,” that carried a caveat subhead, “Economists Question If Move Is Wise at This Time.”
Second was the Financial Times banner, “UK Unveils Dramatic Austerity Cutbacks.” The FT story begins, “The U.K.’s conservative-led coalition has announced the most drastic budget cuts in living memory. …
“The sweeping cuts in entitlements and spending far exceed anything contemplated in the U.S., where Barack Obama … has proposed only a three-year freeze on discretionary spending and Congress is still debating whether to extend tax cuts for the wealthy.”
The Tory budget cuts defense 8 percent and military personnel by 7,000. Translated here, that would mean a cut of $60 billion and about 100,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
By 2015, some 490,000 public-sector employees, 8 percent of the total, will lose their jobs. The rest will have their wages frozen for two years and face a 3-percent-of-salary hike in compulsory contributions to their pension program. The retirement age will rise from 65 to 66.
France is in the 10th day of demonstrations, strikes and riots over President Sarkozy’s plan to raise the retirement age to 62.
If Cameron’s plans take effect and his projections prove correct, Britain’s deficit will fall from 10 percent of gross domestic product to 2 percent.
Writes the FT, “The UK cuts … over four years are the equivalent of 4.5 percent of projected 2014-2015 gross domestic product. Similar cuts in the U.S. would require a cut in public spending of about $650 billion.”
Nothing like that is being discussed here, and even if Republicans capture the House, cuts of that magnitude appear out of the question. The correlation of forces would not permit it...
Hence, the Tea Party faces almost certain disappointment, if not disillusionment.
Why? Because many in the Republican establishment also do not believe austerity is the way to go in a recession. Second, while most Republicans may favor deep cuts, they know that if they vote to cut Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance, but do not get those cuts, they will get the pain but not the benefit and be held accountable, just as Democrats were held accountable for cap-and-trade, which they voted for but did not get through the Senate.
Republicans will come out of this election with a tricky hand to play. They will have the appearance of power, but not the actuality. They will vote for cuts that will not be agreed to by the Senate or accepted by the president.
If the economy is in the ditch in 2012, they will seem ineffectual. If the economy is improving, Obama and Bernanke will claim credit.
By then, however, we will know the fate of the Tea Party Tory who will at least have seen his policy prescriptions put to the test...MORE...LINK
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Chris Moore comments:
America is no longer the economic superpower it once was, and simply can’t afford to go on spending as it has in the past. Since it will continue to, inflation will eventually set in in a big way.
All of the money that is being burned now to pay for bankster bailouts, unnecessary wars, and to buy off various special interests and government unions and pay off cronies will come back to haunt the Establishment neolib/neocon Political Class from “Left” to “Right” -- not that it will care until it is put up against the pitchforks.
Cameron obviously possesses more foresight, brains, guile and intestinal fortitude than the entire establishment GOP combined. He also had the guts to basically admit his support for the Iraq war was a mistake (even if he supported seeing it through), and demand an investigation of neolib Tony Blaire’s rationale for involving Britain.
Why can’t the Establishment American Right produce a politicians like him? Because they are mostly ignorant, effete wimps who have been corrupted and bought off by Marxist-lite Keynesianism who instead seek to prove their manhood by ordering the bombing of Muslim women and children as they smear their own smug faces with caviar.
We have been utterly failed by the post WWII generations of leadership, who with a couple of exceptions are basically a buffoonish joke, a nasty collection of sick clowns. And America is going down the tubes as a result.
Ugly, smug, clownish face of the post-Christian, neoconned GOP--
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