Europe to U.S.: Time to ‘go Dutch’
October 15, 2013, 10:47 AM
That was the rebuke for U.S. lawmakers in a press conference after a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers on Monday. The comment, from Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, addressed the concern about international economic damage if Congress triggers a U.S. default by failing to raise the debt ceiling by Thursday.
The Dutch government recently won opposition support to pass a budget for 2014.
“This was, in a nutshell, a victory for responsibility over brinkmanship,” Rehn said about the budget deal in the Netherlands. ”It is high time for U.S. politicians to go Dutch. We urgently need to see a similar victory for responsibility in Washington in order to not inflict serious damage on the world economy and jeopardize, also, the nascent recovery underway now in Europe.”