Letter: Europe not austere enough

So Newsday believes that Europe's fiscal austerity is misguided and has not been helping the eurozone ["Europe's voters pushing back," Editorial, May 8].

Fiscal austerity has been in effect for perhaps two years, while ruinous levels of public spending needed to fund the European welfare states have been the norm for generations, and you think that's enough to call it quits? Do you really believe that France, with debt at more than 80 percent of gross domestic product, and government spending at 53 percent of GDP, should spend even more money in an attempt to stimulate growth?

Isn't it about time that Newsday and other publications started to criticize this type of behavior both here and abroad, and bury once and for all the socialist model for growth that Europe shows us every day does not work, and that President Barack Obama has proved does not work in our own country?

Gary D. Weil, Nesconset