European-Style Austerity Cuts Coming To America

Austerity is the term being used by politicians and the big bankers that own them, to describe the process of increasing state revenue, by cutting social services, raising the cost of other social services like health care and education, and increasing taxes, in an effort to "balance their budgets".  If people were receiving a better health care system or education system in exchange for these increases, it may be understandable.  Instead the social services are left the same, or are made worse than before, as the citizens are forced to pay more.

Demonstration against cuts and austerity in Portugal, February 2012

This is what is happening all over Europe, including in the country of Portugal, where the 2013 budget is "the toughest in living memory, including income tax increases of about 30 per cent", according to the Financial Times.  Portugal has already suffered from austerity cuts driving the small country into its deepest recession in 40 years, with record unemployment.  The FT report continues, "Medical fees more than doubled in January. The cost for using emergency services, for example, rose from €9.60 to €20, partly to discourage people with minor ailments from going to hospital. The number of people seeking emergency treatment has since fallen by 10 per cent."  For the politicians and the bankers, this still is not enough, and want even more harsh austerity cuts.  Europe will probably continue to be in chaos, with riots and protests, as long as the elite insist on these austerity cuts.