Throwing the baby out with the bathwater...

**Infoproliferati** · 10-23-2010, 10:05 AM

Courtesy of blog: jeffreyhill.typepad.com.

This cartoon by Chris Riddell from The Observer shows UK Chancellor George Osborne throwing a bathful of water out of a nursery window—and the baby along with it.
EXPLANATION
To understand this cartoon you need to know that throw out the baby with the bath water is an idiomatic expression used to suggest an avoidable error in which something good is eliminated when trying to get rid of something bad, or in other words, rejecting the essential along with the inessential.
The cartoonist uses the baby and bathwater image as a metaphor for the government's policy for dealing with the economic crisis, a policy based on reducing the budget deficit. In the cartoon, the bathwater is the deficit and the baby represents growth. The message is clear: by concentrating on deficit reduction, the government risks undermining economic growth.
The baby's place in the cot has been taken by a fat cat, a reference to the government's close ties with big business. A Mrs Thatcher doll lies on the floor (the former Tory leader was also know for her spending cuts).
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This cartoon addresses the new proposal to reduce the UK's deficit over a period of 4 years by cutting government spending anywhere between 20% and 40%. Yikes. Anyone from the UK support or disapprove of this plan?

Now this cartoon may as well be a reference to the US regarding multiple suggestions about how to go about introducing new tax cuts. Given that corporations prefer to buy back their own stock instead of hiring new workers, or the fact that small businesses are looking for ways to save rather than grow business or individuals who are spending less given the tough times, I doubt the efficacy of introducing new tax cuts during such an economic climate. A reduction in taxes will lead to a reduction in government spending while the gov't tries to pay down its debt and hence the cartoon above.

During the last G20 summit Obama mentioned the priority of focusing on economic growth over deficit reduction. The UK thinks it should go the opposite way.

Thoughts on the US or UK situation?