GA and I were discussing the protests from this last weekend that were considered to be huge by London standards. We were wondering why there was no austerity plan in the US. How is it that Lefties in Europe are so far ahead of us on this matter and Congress is just now getting around to tinkering with it? Why the endless mantra about stimulating our way out of it, when the Europeans are embracing austerity as the solution? Why isn't the EU beside itself with rage that the US is doing so little about its deficits?

The answer that stood out was the military. The US is annually subsidizing the security of Europe and Japan with 100s of billions in military spending directed at those regions. If our allies had to pay for that security or provide it themselves then their deficits would be substantially larger.

Therefore one could conclude that our allies aren't interested in demanding that we go on a diet, because we greatly subsidize their economies with our military spending. The current US budget cut debate isn't even considering the military.

The truth is if through severe austerity measures you made the American public feel the costs of military spending and gutted their social benefits while raising taxes to balance the budget, there's no way in hell the military budget would be left untouched as it has been.

I think our allies know if Americans had to feel the cost of the largess of the military, it would get packed up and sent home.

Why should Europeans be angry about American budget deficits ?

Maybe for the same reason some Europeans (and Canadians!) get frustrated with the American budget cuts

Sassenach wrote:Why should Europeans be angry about American budget deficits ?

I meant that in terms of the political elite, not the prols.

Man, you ever get into a conversation with someone who can't stop making everything about themselves?

NA - why are 'we' (the UK, less so the rest of Europe - please learn that it's not a homogeneous mass!) having austerity? Because we had an election last year in which the party that came third and had spent the previous few months saying that we should not cut too early or too hard decided to change their minds and join up in coalition with the Tories.

And as I've pointed out, our economic growth has stalled - we are nervously awaiting the Q1 figures to see if we've gone into double-dip.

But frankly, European leaders are not influencing your nation's budget. It's down to your own politicians to deal with, not ours. Perhaps they are not calling for you to balance your budget because they have their own problems to deal with? Stop blaming others for America's problems.

Maybe we could discuss something without blathering on about America one day?