An American View of Britain's Spending Cuts

"From America, the Cuts Do Not Look Too Drastic," Yorkshire Post, October 29, 2010. Not available on the Yorkshire Post site due to technical issues. "In short, every Labour government since 1945 has run afoul of the skepticism of the markets. But yet, according to the left, there is never a good time to spend less. When the economy is up, it’s time to spread the wealth by spending more on the social services. When the economy is down, cutting spending will drive the nation into a depression and inflict untold horrors upon the poor. If that’s true, then the poor really must have been suffering under Labour, because Osborne’s plan is to reduce spending to the level it was at in 2007. In anything other than the shortest of terms, that will not be enough. Like the U.S., Britain has an aging population, and its entitlement programs are massively indebted. Saving billions of pounds now will not pay for trillions of pounds worth of benefits in the coming decades."