There is more financial chaos in the European Union today as Portugal announces its 2013 budget. One of the key notes of the released budgets is that the income tax will rise from 9.8% to 13.2% next year. The government also announced spending cuts of 2.7bn Euros, which will cause the country to lose 2% of its public sector workforce, or 600,000 people. Understandably, this lead to a riot of over 2,000 people at the capital demanding that the entire government resign due to poor legislation and leadership. The government states that it is a necessary measure to bring the budget deficit down to 4.5% in the next two years. This gets me thinking about our own budget deficit. The US has done hardly anything at all to cut the deficit. This instance in Portugal also shows that tax hikes and spending cuts are what cause people to lose jobs, much like we are doing right now. However, Portugal is only doing this because it is in a predicament financially; however, if we get to the point of no return, I hope that we can look onto the EU and see that problems that they had and make sure that we do not follow in their footsteps.
Matt Stochelski
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