driveby Posted September 30, 2010 Share Posted September 30, 2010 The worldwide Tea Party As a cradle-to-grave welfare state, Sweden has long been the northern light of liberals, the pole star of congressional progressives. And yet when the Social Democrats cast the recent election as a choice between tax breaks for the rich and more welfare, they were handed their worst electoral showing since 1914. By electing the four-party right-of-center coalition, Alliance for Sweden, voters opted for tax cuts. This unexpected Swedish victory is just the latest in an unprecedented run of success worldwide for fiscally conservative parties, beginning after the Greek debt crisis in April. Without much fanfare, the Scandinavian country has been moving away from socialism Since taking office in 2006, the center-right administration of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has reduced income and corporate taxes, repealed a longstanding wealth tax, tightened unemployment and sick-leave benefits (which are still exceedingly generous), and privatized various state assets. On September 19, Reinfeldt became the first conservative premier in modern Swedish history to win reelection, though his government apparently fell just short of securing a parliamentary majority. The once-mighty Social Democratic party captured less than 31 percent of the vote, its worst performance in nearly a century. Meanwhile, the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) — a populist-nationalist party critical of Muslim immigration — finally gained entrance into the Riksdag, picking up a remarkable 20 seats (out of 349) and virtually doubling its vote share from 2006. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Sacrebleu Posted September 30, 2010 Share Posted September 30, 2010 OK. So often I hear the "well look europe is also veering to the right" argument. You need to understand that someone like, say, Sarkozy the right wing, pro business, tax cuts for the rich french president is well, WELL, WELL WELL to the left of our dearly departed Ted Kennedy. What France or Sweden offers in subsidies would make most of your heads absolutely exlplode. Even I who am a hard core leftist on these boards as you know has run into some situations back in france where I say "tax payers payed for WHAT?!?!" So to argue that Europe is getting on the tea party express is ridiculous. Kind of like that stupid argument that the right often uses talking about how JFK cut taxes for the wealthy to prove how right they are about the value of cutting taxes. Yeah he brought them down from 90 percent to 70 percent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yukon Cornelius Posted September 30, 2010 Share Posted September 30, 2010 So to argue that Europe is getting on the tea party express is ridiculous. tis why id did not respond. Most in the u.s have no idea what is going on in Europe let alone here in the states. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrumjuice Posted October 1, 2010 Share Posted October 1, 2010 How does this make you feel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiegie Posted October 1, 2010 Share Posted October 1, 2010 How does this make you feel? seems useful to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpwallace49 Posted October 1, 2010 Share Posted October 1, 2010 How does this make you feel? I also would prefer an itemized bill . . . thanks for the link! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isleseeya Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 i have been to sweden ...in the summer to boot There are so many gorgeous blond blue eyed women who do not wear bras that no one cares about health care or politics there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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