Iraq Prepares Austerity Budget

[Jefferson23]

Prof. Sabah Alnasseri says Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is planning to cut social sector employment as collapsing oil prices, corruption, and the anti-ISIS campaign will leave the government short on revenue

- February 1, 2015

Bio

Sabah Alnasseri was born in Basra, Iraq, and earned his doctorate at the Johann-Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. He teaches Middle East politics and economy at the Political Science Department at York University in Toronto, Canada. His publications cover various topics in Marxist political economy, Marxist state theory in the tradition of Gramsci, Poulantzas and Althusser, theory of regulation, and Middle East politics and economy.

Transcript

Iraq Prepares Austerity BudgetSHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries, coming to you from Baltimore.

Last month, the Iraqi cabinet approved a draft budget of $102.5 billion for 2015 based on projected oil prices of $60 a barrel and a projected deficit of $19.1 billion. But oil prices have dropped further to $50 this month. And with the projected deficit, as well as the controversy surrounding the budget, will the Iraqi government be able to honor its constitutional agreement to provide the autonomous Kurdistan region with its full 17 percent of the budget?

We will deal with this question and much more with our next guest, Sabah Alnasseri. He's joining us from Toronto, Canada. Professor Alnasseri teaches at the Department of political science at York University.

Thank you so much for joining us, Sabah.

SABAH ALNASSERI, ASSOC. PROF. MIDDLE EAST POLITICS, YORK UNIV.: Thanks for having me, Sharmini.

PERIES: So, Sabah, let's start with why the draft budget wasn't approved in the first place.

ALNASSERI: Right. I mean, first of all, the irony is is the Islamic State released its budget on January 15 for 2015 with $2 billion and $250 million surpluses--and, again, so much to the U.S. degradation of Islamic State--whereas the Iraqi state doesn't have a budget now.

And the problem is--actually, there are multiple problems. The first one is the oil-producing and gas-producing provinces, they wanted $5 premiums on each produced barrel of 150 [cubic (?)] gas, but they get only $2. So that's one of the problems and one of the conflict fields.

in full: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=13035

[blkmusclmachine]

1. Austerity: The 1%er's SCAM

[Midnight Writer]

2. Small Government and Widespread Poverty

will surely lead to a more stable Iraq.

I mean, conservative orthodoxy says it will work in the USA, why wouldn't it work in Iraq?

[Jefferson23]

3. Exactly..everyone join in, a fabulous ride for all. Pathetic, isn't it? n/t