A German reporter lectured White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on the double standard the White House shows towards the EU on debt reduction. The Obama Administration is quick to lecture the Europeans on reducing debt while ignoring an even bigger mess here at home.
“The U.S., as far as I know, has a worse debt-to-GDP ratio than the whole eurozone… So from the European perspective, it seems that this country is in a bigger mess than Europe.”
From The White House website:
MR. CARNEY:Let me go in the back. Yes, German press. Yes.
Question: Thank you. Thank you, Jay. I was also traveling, just the other direction. I was a week in Germany, and from there, the default and the financial state of the international health looking different. So people are really amazed how this country — I know it’s not the government; you have a democracy, but first and foremost, it’s the parliamentary responsibility, not government responsibility — how this country deals with the debt crisis.
The U.S., as far as I know, has a worse debt-to-GDP ratio than the whole eurozone, and we are talking about the eurozone, not about the United States and that Congress can’t get its act together. So from the European perspective, it seems that this country is in a bigger mess than Europe. We are not proud where we are. We know that it’s slow and not bold, and so on, but at least they are doing something; they are deciding something, they’re trying to pull that through. And here, nothing is happening — third time this year.
MR. CARNEY: I don’t think it’s helpful to get into which side of the Atlantic handles its problems better or worse. I think each side needs to — we need to act and the Congress needs to act, this country needs to act. And obviously, as I just discussed in answer to a question earlier, the Europeans need to move forward with rapid implementation of their plans.
Well that will be the last time he’s called on in a while.
