MERKEL'S BUDGET CUTS WORKED: GERMAN ECONOMY GREW AT FASTEST PACE IN 20 YEARS

THEY CRITICIZED HER FOR IT - OBAMA AND THE MEDIA - BUT IT WORKED:

The German economy grew by 2.2% in the three months to the end of June, its fastest quarterly growth in more than 20 years, official figures show.

"Such quarter-on-quarter growth has never been recorded before in reunified Germany," the national statistics office, Destatis, said.

... "The strong second quarter performance of the German economy is impressive but not surprising," said Carsten Brzeski at ING Financial Markets.

"The German economy mainly benefited from two factors - a catching up in the construction sector after the harsh winter and strong foreign demand for German goods."

FLASHBACK: Merkel Introduces German Austerity Package

June 8, 2010, 3:48 am

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday introduced a major austerity package aimed at finding savings of more than 85 billion euros by 2014, but it was immediately criticized by the opposition and trade unions, which pledged that they would unite to fight cutbacks they claimed would undermine the country’s generous social welfare system.

“The savings offer no perspective whatsoever,” Michael Sommer, leader of the German Federation of Trade Unions, told Judy Dempsey of The New York Times.

Speaking after two days of intense talks in the Chancellery, Mrs. Merkel said the savings program — the largest in the country’s postwar history — was the only way for Germany to “stand on its legs.”

SHE WAS RIGHT!

THE SOCIALISTS OPPOSED HER:

The German government's newly announced budget cuts may be a signal for the struggling euro, but the decision not to hike taxes on the rich will fuel public protest against the measures, say media commentators. If Chancellor Angela Merkel was hoping for a fresh start for her embattled government, this wasn't it.

After eight months of in-fighting, stalling and setbacks, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government finally took a landmark decision on Monday, announcing the country's largest package of budget cutbacks since World War II. It plans to cut the budget by a total of around €80 billion ($95 billion) by 2014 to meet the requirements of the EU's stability pact and of the so-called "debt brake" enshrined in the German constitution.

The savings involve cuts in social spending, including reductions in allowances for the long-term unemployed. There will also be several new business levies including an air travel tax, a tax on nuclear power station operators and a financial transactions tax, although the latter would only be introduced if it were agreed at a European level.

The government also plans to axe 15,000 jobs from federal payrolls by 2014, and to scale back several tax subsidies, including reducing the number of exemptions to Germany's environmental tax.

The opposition Social Democrats, Greens and the Left Party have attacked the measures as socially unfair and complained that the coalition has spared its core base of wealthy and middle-income voters much pain.

THE SOCIALISTS WERE AS WRONG THEN AS THEY ARE NOW - AND AS WRONG THERE AS THEY ARE HERE!

WE NEED TO DO THE SAME THINGS SHE DID THERE, HERE: LIKE CUT SPENDING!

TO DO THAT WE NEED TO DEFEAT OBAMA'S COMRADES THIS NOVEMBER - BY VOTING GOP!

OTHERS WEIGHED IN HERE:

Nicholas Kulish / New York Times:

Defying Others, Germany Finds Economic Success — BERLIN — Germany has sparred with its European partners over how to respond to the financial crisis, argued with the United States over the benefits of stimulus versus austerity, and defiantly pursued its own vision of how to keep its economy strong.

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