Obama Tells Spain to Trim Spending

It's being reported that Obama called the President of Spain and suggested they cut even more spending in an attempt to bring their budget under control...so confidence in Europe and the Euro can stabilize.

How funny is that?

If I was the President of Spain I would probably send Obama a mirror and tell him to call me back after he has looked into it.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – US President Barack Obama on Tuesday asked Spain for "resolute action" to stem its widening deficit, in order to regain market confidence in the eurozone and avoid a spill-over effect from Greece.

"President Obama and Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ... discussed the importance of Spain taking resolute action as part of Europe's effort to strengthen its economy and build market confidence," the White House said in a statement.

EU leaders last weekend pressed Madrid for even deeper cuts, saying that these plans are not tough enough to calm markets, but Spanish finance minister Elena Salgado managed to resist the pressure, El Pais reported.

She argued that the meeting was called to discuss bail-out mechanisms, not Spanish austerity, and to plead for more time for her government to come up with additional measures.

Cutting social benefits will be tough for Spain's centre-left government as the country's unemployment rate has recently surpassed 20 percent and the economy is expected to shrink by 0.4 percent.

See it here; http://euobserver.com/9/30064

Cutting social benefits (programs like free housing, free food, free health care, free money) will be tough for Spain, says the article. It's going to be tough for the USA too! And for Germany, France, Japan and every other Western country who has spent more than they had for the past decades.

Expect more serious unrest as the "Free" stuff gets eliminated.