Getting It

Pay-as-you-go, or paygo, rules require that new entitlement spending and new tax cuts must be paid for dollar-for-dollar with entitlement spending cuts or tax increases. As Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member of the House Budget Committee has noted, the Democrats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi "have violated pay-as-you-go rules by nearly $1 trillion" over the past three years. (WSJ, 5/24/10)

For the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who has long pushed the Tory party to adopt an aggressive deficit-cutting strategy, the menu of restrictions, freezes and spending reversals is a first bid to convince a still uncertain public that Britain needs to be in tune with the budget-cutting in Greece, Portugal, Spain and other parts of Europe. “The years of public sector plenty are over,” he said. “The more decisively we act, the more quickly we can come through these tough times.” (NYT, 5/24/10)

OK, we concede. Time for the U.S. to act more like the rest of the world......