The Dutch government heralded the end of the welfare state on Tuesday as the fifth-largest eurozone economy presented an austerity-driven budget for 2014.
“The classic welfare state is slowly but surely turning into a society of participation,” King Willem-Alexander told parliament, laying out the Liberal-led government’s plans for the year.“It is asked of all those who can to take responsibility for their own life and that of those around them,” the king said in the speech written by Prime Minister Mark Rutte....
The austerity measures will reduce Dutch households’ purchasing power by 0.25 percent in 2014, but at the same time bring the public deficit down to 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
The Netherlands’ Central Planning Bureau (CPB), whose predictions the government uses to draw up its budget, said in June that without the additional measures the deficit would rise to 3.9 percent of GDP next year.
European Union rules mean that the Dutch deficit cannot be over 3 percent of GDP. It was 4.1 percent in 2012.
The budget announcement came with the government in free-fall in opinion polls.
The Raw Story
Agence France-Presse
Mike, thanks for attracting attention and, hopefully, well deserved scorn, to that gold medallist of callous selfish sadism .. The Dutch king.
ReplyDeleteAFP had the best title, but Euronews had this very scarcastic pargraph which made it on the TV version too..
“It was not immediately clear if the 100 million euros spent by the government
on maintaining the Royal House, with its castles and parades, would be included
in the austerity cuts.”
As far as Medals For Callous-Selfish-Sadism go, may I make two more suggestions…
SILVER goes to the report by JP Morgan earlier this year .. recommending that southern european countries got rid of their excessively democratic constitutions(returning to their fascist past..)
see..http://blogs.euobserver.com/phillips/2013/06/07/jp-morgan-to-eurozone-periphery-get-rid-of-your-pinko-anti-fascist-constitutions/
BRONZE goes to the comment by the criminal irish banker who recommended on radio (audio on his Wikipedia page)cutting spending on what he called the "sacred cows" of Irish society: children, the elderly and health care.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seán_FitzPatrick
I guess I am being a bit Eurocentric here and forgot about the interview with Lloyd Blankfein
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/fiscal-cliff-lloyd-blankfein-social-security_n_2166099.html