Good Day/Bad Day: Greece

The snipe-fest that passed for a Republican debate in Las Vegas last night had some dubbing it an amateur version of the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Grrrrr. So today as the candidates recovered from the bruising exchange might not have been a good day for most of them.

Still, we can’t imagine their bad day is anything like Greece’s. The whole country is up in arms after Greek lawmakers gave initial approval today to a new austerity bill that will bring a lot more pain to the bankrupt country. Protesters – numbering more than 100,000 - were so mad they even threw chunks of marble and gasoline bombs at riot police. Now that’s mad – and pretty stupid.

Riot police responded with tear gas and stun grenades.

The measures include new tax hikes, further pension and salary cuts, the suspension on reduced pay of 30,000 public servants and the suspension of collective labor contracts.
Some observers are looking at Greece and its woes, and saying that’s our fate in the United States if we don’t get serious about the debt problems and jobs crisis.

We don’t think it will come to that but policymakers must be proactive in dealing with these matters. The time is now for Congress to stop its petty partisan bickering. Democrats and Republicans on the Congressional supercommittee need to cooperatively craft an effective debt plan that Congress can get behind and pass. When that happens, it will be a good day for Americans, and for this country.

Fannie Flono