Recession spending | The Salt Lake Tribune

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It is interesting how members of the Utah Legislature are quick to accept lessons from Europe when the subject matter fits into their own ideology, as in the case of lowering the blood-alcohol threshold for a drunken driving citation ("Utah senator considers cutting state's drunk driving threshold" (Tribune, May 16).

Yet they refuse to recognize that most European nations provide health care to 100 percent of their citizens for half of what we spend, with superior outcomes.

On the other side of the coin, European "austerity" fiscal programs have aggravated their prolonged recovery from recession, but our Republican legislators want the United States to repeat that mistake. Japan has proven the validity of increased spending during a recession.

If people weren't so bound to rigid ideologies we could learn a lot from the successes and failures of other nations.

Glen Elkins

Salt Lake City