Heritage Foundation: U.S. should stop supporting the EU

[TomSea]

U.S. should stop supporting the EU
Updated February 26, 2017 2:08 PM By Ted R. Bromund

THE BOTTOM LINE

    Political indulgence of a federal Europe deepened with the end of the Cold War.

The Trump administration doesn’t like the European Union. Its critics claim this is a major shift in U.S. policy. They’re right. But on substance, it’s the administration that’s got it right. The upcoming French elections show why.

The administration’s views on the EU haven’t come fully into focus. But the presumptive new U.S. ambassador to the EU, Ted Malloch, recently wrote that “the U.S. is no longer interested in the old forms of European integration.” So the trend of U.S. policy is clear.

As Malloch implies, the United States once was interested in promoting the EU. After 1945, we wanted Western Europe to drop its internal tariffs so it would be more prosperous, and nations to stop fighting each other so the continent could resist the Soviet Union. That made sense.

For years, the EU mostly stuck to that program. It always had a utopian political agenda, but it focused on lowering tariffs and subsidizing French farmers. It didn’t create European peace (that came from beating the Nazis) or prosperity (which flowered before the EU). But it helped.

The end of the Cold War, though, liberated the EU to start indulging its political fantasy of creating a federal Europe. But even though both the EU and the times had changed, the United States didn’t rethink its policy.

That was a mistake. The EU was based on the idea that the democratic nations of Europe couldn’t be trusted, so they needed to be controlled by a supranational elite.

Continued: http://www.newsday.com/opinion/commentary/u-s-should-stop-supporting-the-eu-1.13174110

[Hondo69]

Let's not forget we have one heck of a domino effect happening here.

When the U.S. created NAFTA under Clinton the idea was to create a more productive North American alliance that would be a win/win for the three countries involved.  Whatever you think of the net results of NAFTA one result is clear - it spawned the EU.

The EU was formed in response to NAFTA.  And that domino precipitated an overbearing, heavy-handed, group of control freaks located in Brussels.  And Germany found itself holding the bag.

Through the years Germany has been afforded the luxury of spending heavily on social programs and almost zero on national defense.  This is because the U.S. maintained large bases in Germany, which caused their citizens to constantly complain about the bases.  But surprise, surprise, when we closed one of those bases the citizens suddenly changed their tune and screamed bloody murder over the closing.

Today we find ourselves in a situation of possibly closing additional bases in Germany and they are in full out panic mode over the idea.  Diverting precious Deutsche Marks away from social programs and into defense is simply a bridge too far for most Germans.  The potential of holding two bags is a heck of a scary proposition.  It's bad enough to be financing the whole EU on their own but also facing serious cuts in social programs in one huge Nein.

Toss in the ticking time bomb of importing hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees and the overall result is that Germany is starting to feel the vice tightening around their country.  No Way Out is one hell of sticky situation.