Tennessee Senator Bob Corker is tempering his longstanding call to cut government debt with a warning. Corker worries the U.S. will follow down the path of the European debt crisis.
Corker points to so-called “austerity measures” in Europe: unpopular government cuts in areas like healthcare and education. Corker acknowledges it’s not a perfect comparison, because right now the U.S. can borrow easily. But he warns investors might not always be so fond of American debt.
“The fact is we’re seeing what happens when austerity and other kinds of things have to occur. And we’re seeing, by the way, politicians be elected out who have tried to correct the fiscal situations that exist in these countries, which does not bode well.”
Corker told a group of business leaders in Nashville Thursday that in January he thought the European issue was “in the rearview mirror.”
As to the political challenge of winning support for austerity, Corker sees it as a question of “maturity,” and getting voters to take a long view. So far that hasn’t got much traction in places like Greece, where unemployment is at 20 percent.
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