Liberal Democratic strategists reading today's Washington Post are probably taking notes, preparing talking points for a future which may hold a Republican Congress in the cards.
"British women to bear budget pain" cried the page A6 headline. "Report says austerity plan mostly cuts into women's livelihoods," added the subheader for London-based Post staffer Anthony Faiola's story.
Faiola noted that "[t]he Fawcett Society, a leading women's rights group here, filed an unprecedented complaint with the nation's high court this month, arguing that the government failed to consider the effect on women of its leaner 'emergency budget.'"
At no point did Faiola find a critic to allege that the social welfare system in Britain itself was "sexist" or at least that it victimizes poor Britons, particularly women, by creating a culture of dependency on the state.
Indeed, among his 19 paragraphs, Faiola quickly dispatched the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition's defense with a brief quote from finance minister George Osborne in paragraph 13. Faiola quickly got back on track two paragraphs later by noting that "[s]ome Britons... see the cuts as anything but fair," and then turning to the lament of one Joanne Morgan "a divorced mother of three teenagers" who works for the state and "is set to lose $285 a month in child-assistance payments."
Of course, Faiola failed to balance out Morgan's tale of woe by finding an average bloke in a pub to dismiss as poppycock the argument that budget cuts are sexist.
