Gordon Brown is Out, and David Cameron is In as British Prime Minister: What the UK Does to Cut Its Budget Should Be Watched by Obama Administration Officials as We Should Be Doing the Same Thing

It’s been a week of high drama in the United Kingdom as they had a general election, had a hung parliament in terms of no party capturing a majority of the seats in that election, and then all the haggling between the parties to form the next British government.

In the end, David Cameron’s Conservative Party joined forces with the Liberal Democratic Party; Cameron is now the Prime Minister; the leader of the Liberal Democrats is deputy PM.  The cabinet has members of both parties taking up key positions.

President Obama needs to carefully watch what the British do with their budget in the next several months.  If their measures work and Britain is able to stay on an even keel while refraining from exploding their deficit, as Obama is currently doing to the U.S. debt, then perhaps we can pull back from the abyss as well, using parts of the British model.

Cutting the U.S. debt load immediately would be a smart move.  April was UGLY in terms of how much debt was added on: four times higher than in April 2009, and an all-time record for  budget deficits in a month.

And President Obama’s team seems to think that they have to spend massive amounts of money to keep the economy afloat.   This is flawed thinking, and they have to shift gears, before it’s too late.