Looting the economy

Paul Bremer got into trouble this week when he said the U.S. paid a big price for not stopping the looting in Iraq. We can imagine Deputy Premier Martin Jahn saying something similar if, by some miracle, ČSSD gets reelected in two years. "We're paying a big price," he might say, "for the way we looted the economy before the elections." This would be the usual brutal candor from someone who told Právo that the budget deficit is "insane," and it would be true. ČSSD is pushing an array of big spending projects before the elections. There are youth loans, wage hikes for policemen, extra bonuses for state workers, subsidies for coop apartments, subsidies for home-furnishing loans and a Kč 1,000 crayon stipend for first-graders. Instead of looting the economy, it'd be cheaper and more efficient for ČSSD to pay a direct bribe of, say Kč 10,000, for each vote. subsidy