THE GOP TEMPLATE:

Bulgaria Wins Praise for Austerity Efforts (JOE PARKINSON, 9/07/09, WSJ)

Bulgaria's new government has slashed spending and seen its approval ratings rise, making a political star out of Simeon Djankov, a former World Bank economist who runs the finance ministry. [...]

Mr. Djankov has frozen government wages and pensions, mothballed costly state investment projects, and slashed government spending by 15%. The result is an 81% reduction in Bulgaria's budget deficit to $76.5 million in August from $412 million in July.

Amid those measures, the government has earned accolades from Western economists and drawn the highest approval ratings at home since the fall of communism two decades ago. Recent Gallup polls put the government's approval at 64%.

Ivo Prokopiev, chairman of industry group the Confederation of Bulgarian Employers and Industrialists, said, "The crisis has given the new government a unique mandate -- every single unpopular decision could be explained -- and the public are more likely to support the policy."

The "crisis of capitalism" offers Republicans a golden opportunity to run on slashing the State down to size.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 7, 2009 7:58 AM