Graph o' the Day: The United States of France

Funny, you don't look like a European socialist welfare state:

What can Americans learn from the French presidential election? Certainly that France seems to be experiencing the politics of denial. A vote for François Hollande is a vote for fiscal denial... With debt near 90% of GDP, France needs to sharply reduce the size and scope of government. What’s more, a 2010 ECB study found that overall, the EU is about maxed out when it comes to taxes...

...Would a vote for Barack Obama also be a vote for fiscal denial? Well, consider the following:

• The president has offered no comprehensive tax reform plan.

• The president has offered no comprehensive, long-term debt reduction plan.

• The president’s budget will, at best, only stabilize debt at historically high levels. (Better pray we don’t have another recession or financial crisis in the next decade or so.)

Indeed, one might conclude — after listening to the president — that the key to a growing economy and a fiscally sustainable government were higher taxes on the superrich (the Buffett Rule) and blunt Medicare cuts to healthcare providers (IPAB). That’s the politics of denial.

As Europe enters a new and more ominous phase of its recession, one can't help but think of the Weimar Republic and the rise of totalitarianism.

And, it would seem, this is the kind of failing society that President Obama and the Democrat Party wants to emulate.