Obama Faces Chillier Reception Abroad - Leaders at Asian Summits Back Austerity Moves Opposed by Pres.; Ceding the Bully Pulpit to Republicans at Home
From The Wall Street Journal:
President Barack Obama steps back onto the world stage Friday, when he leaves for two economic summits in Asia after a big electoral rebuke.
But his troubles will not ease overseas.
The U.S. and nations abroad are at odds over economic policy. Among the issues, conservative governments in Britain and Germany are pressing for fiscal austerity measures in Europe that Mr. Obama's administration is resisting implementing in the U.S.
"The rest of the world is looking more like the tea party," which wants to rein in government spending, according to Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.
On some economic issues, the trip will play out as Mr. Obama against the world, with the U.S. president as one of the last adherents to Keynesian economic policies, which promote the use of deficit spending and tax cuts to spur economic growth.
The recent election in Britain brought down Mr. Obama's ally on economic policy, Gordon Brown, and brought to power a prime minister, David Cameron, who is going the opposite way. He is pursuing budget cuts and tax increases designed to quickly tame the U.K. budget deficit. He hopes a boost to private-sector confidence will offset the pain of austerity. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is lobbying European countries that have large budget deficits to follow suit.
Republicans, swept to power on Tuesday by voters worried about swelling deficits, are proposing budget cuts of their own. But they're also calling for tax cuts, which doesn't follow the Cameron model.
The White House does believe Washington needs to control federal deficits in the long term by curtailing the growth of entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security. But given the fragile economy, they see short-term austerity as dangerous.
President Barack Obama steps back onto the world stage Friday, when he leaves for two economic summits in Asia after a big electoral rebuke.
But his troubles will not ease overseas.
The U.S. and nations abroad are at odds over economic policy. Among the issues, conservative governments in Britain and Germany are pressing for fiscal austerity measures in Europe that Mr. Obama's administration is resisting implementing in the U.S.
"The rest of the world is looking more like the tea party," which wants to rein in government spending, according to Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.
On some economic issues, the trip will play out as Mr. Obama against the world, with the U.S. president as one of the last adherents to Keynesian economic policies, which promote the use of deficit spending and tax cuts to spur economic growth.
The recent election in Britain brought down Mr. Obama's ally on economic policy, Gordon Brown, and brought to power a prime minister, David Cameron, who is going the opposite way. He is pursuing budget cuts and tax increases designed to quickly tame the U.K. budget deficit. He hopes a boost to private-sector confidence will offset the pain of austerity. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is lobbying European countries that have large budget deficits to follow suit.
Republicans, swept to power on Tuesday by voters worried about swelling deficits, are proposing budget cuts of their own. But they're also calling for tax cuts, which doesn't follow the Cameron model.
The White House does believe Washington needs to control federal deficits in the long term by curtailing the growth of entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security. But given the fragile economy, they see short-term austerity as dangerous.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 7:22 AM
1 Comments:
cool read, i'm glad to know that not only are fiscal conservatives hearing the sirens of the fire called this recession/depression in this country, but in other parts of the world as well.
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