by Smitty
The editors at the Huffington Post have an editorial: G-20 Leaders Pledge To Halve Deficits By 2013. We here at The Other McCain would like to get rid of that spurious ‘L’ in the title: G-20 Leaders Pledge To Have Deficits By 2013. This implies that, yes, the deficits will still exist by the time 2013 rolls around. That is, unless the whole global economic ball of wax has melted down into a puddle of that substance known as Bushdidit.
Beyond this sad typo in the title, let’s examine the rest of THP’s Orwellian outing:
Wary of slamming on the stimulus brakes too quickly but shaken by the European debt crisis, world leaders pledged Sunday to slash government deficits in the most industrialized nations in half by 2013, with wiggle room to meet the goal.
Translation: when a budgetary Houdini is at work, wiggle room makes any restraint an avant garde fashion statement. ‘Les boys do cabaret’.
They generally sided with cutting spending and raising taxes, despite warnings from President Barack Obama that too much austerity too quickly could choke off the global recovery.
“Serious challenges remain,” they cautioned in a closing statement. “While growth is returning, the recovery is uneven and fragile, unemployment in many countries remains at unacceptable levels, and the social impact of the crisis is still widely felt,” according to the document from the Group of 20 major industrial and developing nations.
Briefly: theater is about scripts. Reality is about meaning, which you’ll find elsewhere.
Summit participants navigated a careful course between Obama, with his emphasis on growth, and fellow leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel who advocated spending cuts and even tax increases.
“Advanced economies have committed to fiscal plans that will at least halve deficits by 2013 and stabilize or reduce government debt-to-GDP ratios by 2016,” according to the statement. The gross domestic product (GDP) measures the value of all goods and services, and is considered the best gauge of economic health.
Translation: we have felt things in anticipation of elections. We are committed to feeling something else later.
At the same time, the statement incorporated Obama’s cautions against pulling back government supports too quickly. “To sustain recovery, we need to follow through on delivering existing stimulus plans, while working to create the conditions for robust private demand,” it said.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the summit host, told a wrap-up news conference that “fiscal consolidation is not an end in itself” and that there is “an ongoing role for stimulus in the short term.” Summit participants have been using the term “fiscal consolidation” to refer to spending cuts and tax increases.
Translation: when we say “plan”, we don’t really consider any timeframe beyond our next round of bond sales. Also, people are glomming onto the fact that we are not using terms like “cuts” in any meaningful way. Instead, we’re instituting new, more vague and abstract terminology to help us get past the sad demise of public liberty and government accountability.
“G-20 still has a lot to do to fully entrench the global recovery but these are important steps forward. They are steps that Canada has been seeking,” Harper said.
A White House statement said the G-20’s Toronto agreement carries through with existing stimulus programs while recognizing that deficit-reduction “needs to be calibrated … and tailored to national circumstances.”
The protester wrecking crew was quite a success at the G-20. Plans are underway for G-20palooza, a worldwide urban renewal tour where heads of state gather for photo ops and speechifying, while a nameless, yet curiously well-funded mob cuts right through inconvenient local interests to clear property in preparation for the future.
The US, in particular, views this as a handy work-around for obstructions presented by the Takings Clause of the 5th Amendment, and the ridiculous population of bitter cling-ons who insist on impeding Holy Progress.
