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Europe
France's Melenchon says he would hike spending by 273 billion euros
2017-02-20
French hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon would raise spending by 273 billion euros ($290 billion), his team said in a presentation online on Sunday, Reuters reported. That sum includes a 100 billion-euro recovery plan to stimulate the French economy.

The new spending would essentially be financed through higher taxes, debt, lower tax evasion and higher economic growth, according to Melenchon's political movement, dubbed "Indomitable France" and backed by the country's Communist party.
Not sure how the higher taxes and debt will stimulate higher economic growth. And in France, as in most of Europe, evading the tax collector is a sport rivaled only by metric football...
The proposed measures, which include a 15 percent increase in France's minimum wage, new funds to fight poverty and create new jobs, underscore the gap Melenchon would have to bridge with Socialist rival Benoit Hamon in order to find a common platform for the April and May presidential election.
Raise the minimum wage -- of course that'll create new jobs. Says so in the progressive playbook...
The two hard-left candidates said on Friday they were discussing cooperation in their bid for the presidency, jolting investors already nervous over the possibility of a win for far-right, anti-globalization candidate Marine Le Pen.

Melenchon's plan would cut France's unemployment rate to 6 percent by 2022 from about 10 percent today, with an economic growth forecast of about 2 percent as soon as 2018, his team said.
My forecast is that his plan will lead to an unemployment rate of 12 percent and growth of -0.5 percent. Let's see who's right in 2022...
The total weight of taxes would increase by four points to the equivalent of about 49 percent of France's gross domestic product, while the country's yearly budget deficit would fall to 2.5 percent by 2022, they said.
Posted by:Steve White

#4  pull that bucket handle hard enough and it will FLY!

You have to punish people for being productive in order to get the economy working.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2017-02-20 12:16  

#3  A lot of your new colonists don't really want to work, Mr. Melenchon.

They're just about the freebies and seething.

Maybe you could call the higher taxes jizya.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2017-02-20 10:38  

#2  Melenchon's plan would cut France's unemployment rate to 6 percent

A lot of your new colonists don't really want to work, Mr. Melenchon.

They're just about the freebies and seething.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2017-02-20 08:33  

#1  Not sure how the higher taxes and debt will stimulate higher economic growth.

That's because you don't understand the power of faith.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-02-20 02:53  

00:00