Victory of the French Left Should Help The American Left

[Winston Smith, American Patriot]

The Europeans have started the path to prosperity by shoving Bush friend
Sarkozy out the door, and Angela Merkel, at one time felt up by Bush, should
be next. The UK people should also demand an end to the Cameron/Obsorne
failed program in austerity and that the Tory government step down. This
should put a stake in the heart of the right-wing beast that copulated with
Ayn Rand and which gave bloody birth to the creature called Paul Ryan.

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Change in Paris May Better Fit U.S. Economic Positions
By ANNIE LOWREY
Published: May 7, 2012

WASHINGTON — With the victory of the Socialist candidate, François Hollande,
in the French presidential election, the White House has lost one of its
closest allies on the Continent, but perhaps gained one with economic policy
beliefs more closely aligned with its own.

Mr. Hollande is virtually unknown in Washington, and his policy positions on
both domestic and international affairs remain only lightly sketched out.
That is in stark contrast to the departing president, Nicolas Sarkozy, whose
frequent discussions with and ardent defense of the White House earned him
the nickname “Sarko the American” back home.

But in the past few months, Mr. Sarkozy has parted from the White House in
his support of the German-led austerity project in the debt-soaked euro
zone, a project that the White House objects to on the grounds that cutting
budgets too soon will lead to sluggish growth and high unemployment across
Europe without satisfying the demands of skittish bond investors.

Mr. Hollande, in contrast, ran on a promise of rebalancing Europe away from
austerity and toward growth, and his narrow victory is seen in Washington as
a public rejection of governments imposing strict cuts on battered
economies.

“Austerity need not be Europe’s fate,” Mr. Hollande said shortly after his
victory. To that end, he has said he plans to renegotiate the fiscal pact
Europe struck this winter to allow for more budgetary breathing room for
countries that can still borrow money to support themselves at reasonable
rates on the debt markets. He also supports measures to support growth by,
for instance, bolstering infrastructure spending.

The Obama administration had pushed for such pro-growth policy changes even
as Mr. Sarkozy joined Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in calling for
deep spending cuts.

“If every time economic growth disappoints, governments are forced to cut
spending or raise taxes immediately to make up for the impact of weaker
growth on deficits, this would risk a self-reinforcing negative spiral of
growth-killing austerity,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner told a
Congressional committee in March, comments echoed since then in his
statements at many international forums.

“The administration hopes, in broad terms, that this election will change
the conversation,” said Edwin M. Truman, a senior fellow at the Peter G.
Peterson Institute for International Economics. “In principle, you’d be
saying, ‘Don’t tighten your belt!’ to the countries with the scope to do
so,” Mr. Truman said.

Mr. Hollande seems “naturally more palatable to the administration,” said
Justin Vaïsse, the director of research for the Center on the United States
and Europe at the Brookings Institution. The administration seems to reason
that “Europe probably has a better chance of avoiding a breakup or another
renewed sovereign debt crisis by focusing on growth, rather than just
sticking to austerity,” he said.

A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to
avoid disturbing diplomatic relations, said that the Obama administration
looked forward to working with Mr. Hollande, and that it did not believe
that making changes to the fiscal compact would spook markets or threaten
the validity of the overall agreement, which helped bring down sovereign
debt yields this winter.

Mr. Truman noted that Mr. Hollande would be “adding some supportive material
to make the compact more growth-friendly,” rather than starting from
scratch.

The official said that the White House did not know the details of how the
French president-elect hoped to change the compact, but that many options
were on the table, including delaying some austerity measures, bolstering
the Continent’s methods for recapitalizing its banks and evening out
imbalances between countries with big deficits and those with surpluses.

Observers said that though Mr. Hollande was likely to hew closer to the
Obama administration on economic issues, he would almost certainly move
further away from it on foreign and military policy.

Mr. Sarkozy had led a significant rapprochement between the French and
American governments on foreign affairs, joining Washington in promoting
harsh new penalties for Iran and playing a leading role in gathering an
international coalition to topple the Libyan dictator, Col. Muammar el-
Qaddafi, among other actions.

In a briefing Monday, a State Department spokesman, Mark C. Toner,
acknowledged the administration’s closeness to Mr. Sarkozy, and said he
hoped that the bilateral relationship would deepen with Mr. Hollande.

“We’re going to have an opportunity to sit down at the highest levels, the
president with President-elect Hollande, to discuss all these issues,” he
said. “I’m not going to prejudge in any way how those discussions might go.”

Mr. Hollande has a reputation as conciliatory and consensus-driven, and
Obama administration officials stressed that they expected a close ally in
his government.

In an interview with the Web magazine Slate.fr, Mr. Hollande — who noted
that he speaks English — praised the Obama administration’s foreign policy
and said that the countries had a “convergence” on economic issues. In the
past, he has expressed skepticism about some United States positions on
military issues.

President Obama called Mr. Hollande after his victory and invited him to
meet with him in Washington in advance of international meetings there and
in Chicago this month.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/world/europe/hollandes-economic-policy-
may-better-suit-the-us.html

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America's fascists, who are recognized by the name
"Republican" and "Teabagger," are the evil that festers
when good, decent people look on in apathy, doing nothing.