Posted on 10/04/2013 8:57:29 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Commission President José Manuel Barroso said that while the EU was “ridiculed” for its handling of the eurozone crisis, he would not criticize the United States for its budget deadlock as this was a “normal” result of democracy.
The United States government fell into a partial shutdown at midnight on 1 October after Republican and Democrat leaders failed to strike a deal over the budget. Markets largely ignored the deadlock, but economists have said it would most likely have a broader impact if it last for more than a few days, and could potentially drag further down an economic recovery that has had struggled to gain traction.
Asked by EurActiv if he had any advice for Washington, Barroso said that if the shutdown had happened in the European Union, the bloc would be judged “without pity” by its global counterparts. …
(Excerpt) Read more at euractiv.com ...
Cool.
The austerity measures are eroding their massive welfare state; that is why there is resistance.
“PS. The EU was not necessary for anything whatsoever. Unless your goal is the destruction of the USA as a world power, as the EU’s founders was and is.”
Countries joined the EU for the same reason colonies joined the new United States; individually they are next to nothing, while together they are now a nation and the former nations are “states” in it. As an Irishman I understand what we lost, but we couldn’t be a farm forever.
My fear is not that you’ve left the farm and joined a nation, but that you left the farm and become a vassal of German bankers and French bureaucrats.
The United Colonies that became the United States saw that problem, with Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia being so populous, and the rest of the colonies so small, that they established a co-equal congress, with a Senate made up of two per state, regardless of population size, and a House of Representatives based on population, and an separate administrator, the President, with authority to enforce the laws the co-equal congress passed.
The parliamentary system is good for a single nation, because one side wins and is free to do its will, but in a collection of states forming a nation it has no built-in minority protection with a co-equal but separate branched government, like the United States. The current system puts Germany and France in perpetual charge, as they have the most people, and minority national rights be damned.
That’s all false. For one thing, the states in the USA joined together because they were all one people; for another, the original Washington DC central government was nothing like Brussels’ authoritarian central government and actually guaranteed things like natural rights and separation of powers. The vast majority of EU citizens want to be separate from the EU and have their independence back; the EU is a project of the elites, by the elites and for the elites, with every step progressing towards totalitarianism (Barroso openly confessed that the EU is an “empire” six years ago, and the EU took away the privilege of habeas corpus five years ago by allowing trials in absence; there are lots of others).
The USA did not become a world power until the twentieth century. Before that, they were not seeking such a status, rather having it foisted on them. The EU openly proclaims its ambitions to be a world power, in opposition to the USA, and is a champion of the social market economy.
I am afraid you do not understand what Ireland lost, and that “farm forever” talk is insulting to the people who lost their lives to allow Ireland to become independent, by stereotyping them.
That’s only part of the story. Welfare cutbacks are independent of the increases in taxation, which are taking away jobs. Meanwhile, the politicians in Brussels keep increasing spending.
“The current system puts Germany and France in perpetual charge, as they have the most people, and minority national rights be damned.”
The EU has a rotating presidency, and unlike the US, has limited military means to prevent members from leaving.
Wyoming is at no less disadvantage than Ireland, with their whole 3 electoral votes.
The US was hardly “one people”, from the French in Vermont to the Dutch in NJ/NY to the Germans in Pennsylvania to the “English” along the coast. They were in the same boat (too small to be relevant on their own), and they chose the same course.
1/4 of Ireland never gained there independence anyway, and the rest chose “European” masters instead of “English” ones. The US is giving away its sovereignity to Mexico and Canada (and the UN); we shouldn’t be throwing stones.
What names do you see on the Declaration of Independence? Never mind the genetic ethnic backgrounds of the people that actually did settle in PA.
So because a quarter (less actually) of Ireland didn’t “gain their independence” from Britain (never mind not seeking it), that means that the rest of Ireland should also (yes, also) lose it to the EU? and because the US government is doing the same kind (not quite) of selling out that the European national governments are doing to the EU, conservative Americans should not speak up against that either?
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