Down the Austerity Rabbit Hole
By Tim Walker
Over the past two years, European leaders have been zealously implementing deep public spending cuts in a quixotic attempt to stabilize and grow their economies. The results have been disastrous. Not only are the cuts harming the most vulnerable citizens and striking at the heart of the education and health systems, but the promised debt reduction – let alone economic stability – hasn’t materialized. Quite the opposite, the debt crisis has worsened and social upheaval runs rampant through much of the continent. To put it mildly, austerity just isn’t working.So naturally U.S. lawmakers have been running away from these policies, not wanting to duplicate the same miserable record here at home, right? Of course not. In fact, leaders at the state and national level have