Gregg: U.S. couldn't even join EU due to debt levels

[TheSarge]

The United States wouldn't even be eligible to enter the European Union if it wanted to because of its debt levels, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) claimed Thursday.

"We won't even be able to get into the EU if we wanted to," Gregg said this morning on MSNBC, "because our government is so large and so huge."

The European Union's Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) adopted in 1997 requires a budget deficit to be less than three percent, and requires a national debt beneath 60 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"We've been lectured by France on the fact that we're not fiscally responsible right now," Gregg, the would-be commerce secretary, noted with incredulity.


http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/03/26/gregg-us-couldnt-even-join-eu-due-to-debt-levels/

[NHSparky]

And it's gonna get much, much worse.

[TheSarge]

And it's gonna get much, much worse.

It's going to get the the point we wouldn't qualify to join the OAS or the AFrican Union if we don't put the brakes on the leap towards Socialism we're currently on.

[Lord Undies]

Europe is getting nervous.  This pleases me.  The European leftists are aware of something the American left wishes to deny.  That is, when the USA can no longer be the world's parent/rich uncle,  Europe can no longer afford to be a socialist's paradise.  It's the unintended consequence of the unsustainable socialist dream.

When the USA stops leading the way, the path becomes unnavigable and dangerous.   

[NHSparky]

Now color me cynical, and I've heard nothing locally aside from Gregg isn't running for reelection next year, but is he trying to position himself for a run in 2012?

[Zathras]

Well now, that's the first good thing that the bloated budget The Anointed One put forward has done. Not being allowed to join the EU, if we could, because of it is a good thing IMO.

[BlueStateSaint]

"We've been lectured by France on the fact that we're not fiscally responsible right now," Gregg, the would-be commerce secretary, noted with incredulity.

That is bad.  When the Fwench can lecture you--and they're rignt--it's not a good day.

[Bluesuiter-Retired]

WHY THE HELL WOULD WE WANT TO BECOME PART OF THE "EU"?

[TheSarge]

WHY THE HELL WOULD WE WANT TO BECOME PART OF THE "EU"?

IMHO I don't think we want to...what SEN Gregg was doing was highlighting how bad Obma's financial plans are for this country.

Even as bad as the EU's debt load is...ours is about to become so big that not even people with financial troubles would want us.

[happy1ga]

Yeah, it is basically saying, if the socialists think you are a screw up, then you are a mahjor screw up. But Lord Undies said it best. If we go socialist, then it will screw up their socialist paradise in the EU. Hopefully, this will smack some sense in some of those ultra-cultured Rinos who thought the Bamster was a centrist, with his first class intellect and temper, and loved that he was *gasp* on of them!

[Eupher]

I agree with LU.

The EU was created in large part to compete with the U.S. The whole intent was to take as many of those socialist countries as possible, put them under an even larger, more controlling umbrella, get them to forego their own currencies, and then become the entity that was going to go toe-to-toe with the U.S.

That hasn't happened, of course, but the intent was there.

All in all, the reckless economic policies of Obama are making the EU'ers nervous and they've enlisted their traffic cop Frenchies to waggle their finger at us.

For good reason.