The Australian treasurer, Wayne Swan, in an unusually blunt criticism of US politics weeks before the presidential election, said "cranks and crazies" had taken over the Republicans and posed the biggest threat to the world's largest economy. Mr Swan's speech at the Financial Services Council breakfast in Sydney comes less than two months before the US election.
His speech referred to political gridlock over spending cuts and tax increases due to kick in early next year, which could tip the US economy back into recession. "Let's be blunt, the biggest threat to the world's biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over parts of the Republican Party," he said.
"Despite (US president Barack) Obama's goodwill ... the national interest was held hostage by the rise of the extreme right Tea-Party wing of the Republicans. "There can be few things more alarming in public policy than a political group which was genuinely prepared to see the government of the United States default on its obligations in order to score a political point."
Mr Swan says global markets are nervously watching hardline elements of the Republicans for signs they will block reasonable attempts to support growth. "Fast forward to today, against the backdrop of a very close presidential campaign, and global investors are once again keenly focused on political gridlock in the US," Mr Swan said.
Julia Gillard, Australia's prime minister, backed her colleague's foray into US domestic affairs. "What happens in the U.S. economy matters to the world economy and it matters to us," she told reporters. "Wayne Swan was making that very common sense point today."
The conservative opposition said Swan's speech betrayed his "hatred" of Republicans. "The Labor Party is peddling hatred and they're got to stop," opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey told reporters. "They hate the Republican Party. I'd like Wayne Swan to say something positive about someone somewhere."
Adam Lockyer, a lecturer at Sydney University's U.S. Studies Center, described Swan's speech as "a clumsy political move" that left him open to attack from his political enemies. Lockyer said Swan might have been attempting to link the tea party to the obstructionism of the Australian opposition, which has thwarted Labor's legislative agenda in a finely-balanced Parliament.
Australia has long maintained that its close relationship with Washington, and its 61-year-old defense alliance, remains strong regardless of who is in the White House.
Sources:
Telegraph
huffingtonpost
ABC News
guardian.co.uk
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