EU president calls Obama's plans to spend his way out of recession 'the road to hell'
Aoife White, AP Business Writer
Wednesday March 25, 2009, 3:38 pm EDT
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/EU-presid ... 37788.html
...indeed. In our New World of global socialism, there's no room for dissent...BRUSSELS (AP) -- The head of the European Union slammed President Barack Obama's plan to spend nearly $2 trillion to push the U.S. economy out of recession as "the road to hell" that EU governments must avoid.
AP - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek puts on headphones Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at the European Parliament in ...
The blunt comments by Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek to the European Parliament on Wednesday highlighted simmering European differences with Washington ahead of a key summit next week on fixing the world economy.
It was the strongest pushback yet from a European leader as the 27-nation bloc bristles from U.S. criticism that it is not spending enough to stimulate demand.
Shocked by the outburst, other European politicians went into damage control mode, with some reproaching the Czech leader for his language and others reaffirming their good diplomatic ties with the United States. The leaders of EU's major nations -- France, Britain and Germany, among others -- largely ignored Topolanek and his remarks.
...Topolanek took aim at Washington's deficit spending.
"All of these steps, these combinations and permanency is the road to hell," Topolanek said. "We need to read the history books and the lessons of history and the biggest success of the (EU) is the refusal to go this way."
"Americans will need liquidity to finance all their measures and they will balance this with the sale of their bonds but this will undermine the liquidity of the global financial market," Topolanek said.
...Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialist group in the European parliament, immediately chided Topolanek, saying his comments were "not the level on which the EU ought to be operating with the United States."
"You have not understood what the task of the EU presidency is," he told the Czech premier.
