Bubble And Squeak Time, Part 2

Yesterday I mentioned Britain's austerity measures and the half a million jobs they will cost.  Britain's population is right at 20% of ours, so it would be the equivalent of cutting 2.5 million government jobs here.  As Brad DeLong discovers, the reality of what Britain is in for is far, far worse:

Shame on David Cameron. Shame on Nick Clegg. Shame on George Osborne.

Their shame would not be quite so great if they had a theory about what elements of spending will grow to offset their 9% of GDP planned fiscal contraction. Is the pound supposed to collapse and are exports than to surge? Is the prospect of rising unemployment in the U.K. supposed to greatly enhance business confidence and trigger a surge of private-sector investment? Is the 30-year gilt yield supposed to fall from 4% to 1% and that reduction in the cost of capital cause a surge of capital formation throughout Britain?

Of course not.  It's making average Brits pay for the banks.  And they are going to pay dearly.

[T]he scale of the cuts is...breathtaking. The police budget will fall by 20%. Spending on social housing will fall by three-fifths, with the difference to be made up from higher rents charged to tenants. Local council funding from central government will drop by 28%, a classic strategy in which ministers hope that voters will take their anger out on town halls instead of Whitehall. Spending on the arts will fall by a third. Nor will the damage be confined to the public sector. The government is a significant buyer of goods and services from private firms, after all. PwC, a consultancy, said the other day that it thinks that another half a million private jobs could go over the coming five years as a direct consequence of public-sector austerity, although the chancellor insists that his medicine will be good for the country in the long run.

So another half a million jobs gone.  Cuts that could cost the equivalent here of another five million jobs will be good for the country.  Sound familiar?  It's what the Tea Party wants to do here: slash government to the bone to pay for massive tax cuts for their corporate masters...only like Britain, the Tea Party will only make things worse as they run up red ink.

Keep a close eye on the UK.  The GOP here would love to do nothing more than to follow their draconian lead.