In 2012 Election, Europe’s Growing Economic Woes Loom Over Race For White House

WASHINGTON — The economic situation in Europe — which many observers believe will have a significant impact on whether President Obama will be reelected — is increasingly grim.

Spain, Italy and Greece are struggling anew. The Dutch government collapsed Monday after they were unable to agree on an austerity package. Financial markets are closely watching the French presidential elections, anxious that if Socialist candidate Francois Hollande unseats President Nicolas Sarkozy on May 6, he will follow through on promises to increase federal spending despite a massive public debt and will seek to reduce deficits with huge tax increases on the wealthiest taxpayers.

And voters across the eurozone are angry about the lack of economic growth, despite cuts to government benefits and jobs.

To the extent that Europe’s troubles continue to mount, that will likely increase the drag on the U.S. economy. The worst-case scenario would be a collapse of the eurozone, with one or more countries withdrawing from the alliance and broad economic disruption.

“Europe is in a mess. There’s no question about it. The only question is how much of it will spill over to us and how quickly,” said Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum.

Holtz-Eakin, who was an adviser on the 2008 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said he thinks the center will hold — for now, anyway.

“They’ve thrown tons and tons of resources at the Greeks, the Italians and the Spaniards just for that purpose. It’s not obvious that they’re going to succeed but it looks like they’ve bought time to get through the elections,” Holtz-Eakin said.

Jared Bernstein, who was Vice President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser in the White House until he left the administration last year, also said he thinks Europe is a nuisance to the U.S. economy and political environment, but not a crisis.

“I think it’s gonna shave something off our [Gross Domestic Product] growth but probably a fractional amount. That’s already baked into the forecast that I and I think

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Posted by RobertButler on Apr 24 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry