Who in power would really be any different?

A new report shows that Hollande faces a tougher budget situation than had been expected (by whom?  Not me.).  Here is one bit:

“There will be tax increases; there will be spending cuts,” said the finance minister, Pierre Moscovici, last week. “But I reject any talk of austerity. We must avoid a budget policy that hurts economic activity.”

But it is not clear how the government plans to go about that, since both spending cuts and higher taxes tend to depress already lackluster economic activity even further. Nicholas Spiro, who runs a sovereign risk consulting agency in London, said that the report by the auditors “throws the scale of the fiscal challenge facing Mr. Hollande into sharp relief.”

And this:

But thus far the Hollande government has not been specific about any spending cuts, only tax increases. It will not raise the value-added tax on consumption, but says it will repeal an increase in the tax instituted by Mr. Sarkozy. Nor has the government outlined any structural reforms to reduce unemployment, which remains at a record high in the euro zone.

At least they are trying to get people away from using the misleading word “austerity.”  But it is funny how they too are finding it necessary to engage in some form of fiscal consolidation.