Here's a lead paragraph which brings a tear of joy to the eyes behind the bifocals:
Monday, Mon Jun 17, 1:02 AM ET
By Brian Love
"PARIS (Reuters) - France's conservatives trounced the left and drummed the extreme right back to the sidelines in a landslide election win Sunday that gives President Jacques Chirac a new lease of life and unfettered power."
In the French parliamentary elections of this past Sunday, those running under Prime Minister Jacque Chirac's center-right banner won 392 seats, with the Socialists and other leftists capturing only 173.
Obviously the people of France didn't blame the Chirac government for the defeat of the French soccer team in the first round of the World Cup.
So what's the first thing that happens? According to the International Herald Tribune, one day after the election the Chirac government announced it "was seeking ways to make good on its pledge to sharply cut income taxes."
What, you might well ask, is so wrong with that? Well, just about everything it turns out. As part of the deal of going to the Euro as the pan-European currency, each nation had to agree to adhere to a strict regime of deficits and debt-to-GDP ratios.
The IHT article by Barry James, indicates that the Brussels Bureaucrats won't stand for any tax cuts.
"Romano Prodi," James writes, "the head of the European Commission, wasted no time in saying that the commission would not hesitate to issue a formal warning against any country that relaxed the economic discipline that guarantees the stability of the euro."
The EU has sent similar warnings to Portugal and Germany. Thus, with only 12 countries participating in the Euro experiment, the European Union will have had to wag its finger in the face of fully 25 percent of its membership.
Maybe. Just maybe. The rules are wrong.
It turns out that the real reason that the EU wants its member countries to keep taxes high is to protect the value of the Euro against other major world currencies. This is not so difficult now, but in 2004, ten more countries are scheduled to join the EU - poor countries - which might well mean that goods and services purchased in Europe from non-Euro countries will cost more.
Let's see if I understand this: Center-Right France wants to lower taxes because it believes it will increase economic growth. The Center-LEFT (putting the best possible face on it) European Parliament wants France to keep taxes high so that the currencies of Luxembourg and Finland (two of the twelve members) will be protected when the new countries are admitted.
Memo to PM Chirac. Let them try to levy a fine against you. Don't pay it. We'll be there for you against the massed forces of the EU.
Again.
Tonight, Wednesday, the Republican House and Senate campaign committees will be
hosting their annual joint fundraiser: The President's Dinner.
Some 6,200 people will spend an intimate evening listening to George W. Bush and dining with their most intimate pals. The amount the committees will have raised has not yet been released, but I happen to know - as this is my 20th President's Dinner - that the sheer number of people attending is the largest ever.
The previous high was the last dinner featuring President Reagan which was attended by nearly 1,000 FEWER people than this event.
A significant change in the attendance is the number of people who are buying one, two or three tickets from out-of-town. This, as opposed to corporations and lobbyists buying whole tables.
Over 1,500 people mailed in checks or gave their credit card number to attend. I think that might be an indication of just how popular - not withstanding the drumbeat in the press corps to the contrary - George W. Bush really is with rank and file Republicans.
The buzz around Your Nation's Capital this week had to do with both Al Gore and John Edwards planning to hold retreats on the same weekend to plot their 2004 election strategies.
Retreat. Perfect word.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the International Herald Tribune article, and the usual things.
If you are working at a lobbying firm, a government affairs office, a coalition, or a PAC you should take a
look at this page to see how advertising in Mullings might serve your organization very well:
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