« Fact-check on "Mourning in America" ad echoing Reagan classic shows its numbers are truthful | Main | Ahmadinejad's latest UN speech even whackier than Tuesday's »
September 23, 2010
What Slovakia's new conservative-liberal government "gets" that we don't
Topics: Political News and commentariesMarian L. Tupy writes at Cato: A Novel Way of Keeping Fiscal Deficits Under Control?
Having inherited an 8 percent budget deficit from the previous socialist government, the new conservative-liberal government of Slovakia has come up with a novel way of keeping budget deficits under control in the future. Starting in 2011, salaries of government ministers will rise and fall depending on the evolution of the fiscus. Thus, a budget deficit of 5 percent will translate to a 10 percent decrease in salaries, while an (unlikely) budget surplus of 5 percent will translate into a 10 percent rise in salaries, etc. It will be interesting to see if this new measure will truly result in a more responsible fiscal policy in the years to come.This is "Slovakia" folks, formerly a socialist country, whose current conservative government inherited an 8% deficit - now using common sense, free-market, and entrepreneurial concepts to control government spending. Meanwhile ....., well, you know the story here in America - where our curerent federal deficit as a percent of GDP is over 10 percent - the highest in over 55 years.Incidentally, had the United States adopted a similar measure, President Obama's reported salary of $400,000 in 2009 would have fallen to $320,000 in 2010.
Posted by Richard at September 23, 2010 5:13 PM
Articles Related to Political News and commentaries:
