Notwendigkeit ist ein Weibchen

Guess who's the latest eeeeevil, greeeeedy tax-cutter?

Facing staggering unemployment numbers and rising budget deficits, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has decided to follow the example set by President Bush - announcing a new tax cut program last week in a speech to Germany's parliament.

Schroeder's new economic program would cut corporate taxes from 25% to 19%. The German leader said he also plans to cut taxes for small business.

The tax cut proposal flies in the face of advice from liberals around the world, including Democrats in America. Last week, for instance, New York Senator Hillary Clinton complained to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan that the Bush tax cuts had caused the U.S. deficit to explode.

But Schroeder is hoping that his own tax cut plan will reverse Germany's daunting 12.6% unemployment rate, and a budget deficit that now approaches 3% of his country's gross domestic product.

Germany's tax rates are among the highest in Europe, according to the BBC, which first reported Schroeder's tax cut announcement.

I guess even Old Europe still hasn't quite mastered the art of taxing itself rich.

But it's the nature of lefties that the others will always believe that if they get a crack at the economic ship of state, their recipe of just the right mix of tax and spending and regulatory increases will unlock the big yellow doors to the magic land of banana republicanism, where the law of TANSTAAFL doesn't apply.

So don't expect Mrs. Clinton to show evidence of the vast intelligence she's reputed to possess and actually learn anything from the German (much less American) experience.

She's too smart for that....