Britain pays the piper while the U.S. tells him to "F" off..

It is only a matter of time before the United States adopts similar policies that the British have recently announced. Unfortunately, our politicians do not have the “balls,” pardon my French, to do so. In Britain, it is time to pay the piper. In America, we do not want to believe that the piper has to get paid.

The Conservative led government in Britain has announced drastic cuts in public spending and initiated a variety of policies to control their public deficit. The public deficit as a percent of economic output in Britain is 11.5%, in America it is 10.7%. The British have announced 83 billion pound spending cuts, or 130 billion USD. The announced policies seem draconian; 19% cuts across all government departments, 490,000 public sector employees to be laid off, payment cuts to the long term unemployed, limits announced on jobless benefits and to welfare recipients, an increase in the retirement age, cuts in the arts and police, and higher value added taxes.

In my opinion, this kind of thing will eventually occur in the U.S. We just do not want to admit it…yet. The British have decided that they must face the music if they want to dance. In America, we do not want to hear the music, never mind dancing to it.