Feature

WashPost Asks if Greece Can Be Trusted To Cut Spending… When It’s Already Cut Spending 23 Percent

After Greece Cuts a Quarter of Its Budget, WaPo Asks if It’s Willing to ‘Trim Spending’

Jim Naureckas July 7, 2015

Alexander Tsirpas talks to reporters. (SpaceShoe/ Flickr)

The Washington Post‘s Griff Witte and Michael Birnbaum report on what Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras might do in the wake a resounding anti-austerity vote in his nation’s referendum: “Tsipras also is expected to present new proposals to a tough audience: seeking to persuade European partners that Greece can be trusted to trim its spending, and get fresh bailout funds in return.”

Hmm…. Can Greece be trusted to trim its spending? Let’s take a look:

So from 2010 to 2015, Greece has cut government spending from roughly 13 billion euros to 10 billion euros — a cut of 23 percent. Unsurprisingly, this has had a devastating effect on Greece’s economy, with unemployment stuck above 25 percent since the end of 2012.

In the Washington Post‘s eyes, though, Greece has not yet demonstrated the willingness to “trim its spending” that would merit a bailout.

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Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org, the media criticism website, and has edited FAIR’s print publication Extra! since 1990. James Weinstein gave him his first job in journalism, when he hired him in 1987 to write about the Iran/Contra Scandal for In These Times. He is the co-author of The Way Things Aren’t: Rush Limbaugh’s Reign of Error, and co-editor of The FAIR Reader. He was an investigative reporter for In These Times and managing editor of the Washington Report on the Hemisphere. Born in Libertyville, Illinois, he has a poli sci degree from Stanford. Since 1997 he has been married to Janine Jackson, FAIR’s program director.