Washington on the Seine

Posted by hpayne on April 8, 2013

AP photo

Paris, France – Traveling to France these days seems like a trip back in time – or a trip into America’s future.

It starts aboard antiquated Air France which does not offer in-flight WiFi – a staple service aboard American airlines these days. But that is trivial compared to the economy that awaits on the other side of the Atlantic. Paris is as charming as ever, rooted in the capital city’s stunning King Louis palaces, Napoleonic columns, sprawling art museums, and wide boulevards.

But the economy beyond this government opulence is mired in backward market socialism – burdened by immobile, unionized workforces, stifling regulations, and crushing debt. Unemployment is stubbornly high – 10.6 percent and climbing as France is mired in yet another recession – despite years of stimulus spending. Per capita income is 70 percent of the U.S. The only thing the country has to show for its decades-long spending spree is 90-percent-of-GDP debt and Moody’s stripping the country of its AAA credit rating.

Sound familiar? It’s Barack Obama’s economic model.

Naturally, France’s socialist government is blaming all this on the rich and flogging a 75 percent top tax rate on the wealthy. It’s right out of the Obama playbook – and just as empty in effect. Its politics are also wearing thin.

Just as the Obama administration speaks fluent 99 Percenter by day, then parties at night with it One Percent pals, France has been rocked by financial hypocrisy at the highest levels. Last month, President François Hollande’s budget minister admitted he had sheltered much of his own private fortune in undeclared offshore bank accounts.

President Obama is a unique figure in America’s progress to overcome its civil rights past. But as a president, he is a throwback to Europe’s failed market socialism. Its ugly consequences are being felt all over Europe today.

Comments are closed.