Irish lawmakers offer initial OK for brutal budget

Coming soon to a plantation near you. The sheeple are going to get fleeced.

Ireland is not broke. The Irish banks, the European banks, the European Central Bank, and the IMF are the ones who are broke. This is extortion pure and simple.

several hundred left-wing protesters

that should be changed to "several hundred non-sheep protesters". If left wing-right wing has come down to who is willing to be robbed and who isn't then there isn't much hope of getting out of this mess without a disaster.

that should be changed to "several hundred non-sheep protesters"

or "several hundred communist protesters"

@manfromamerica- spend some time learning the difference between communism and capitalism. And I mean real capitalism, and not the corporate socialist welfare state that Americans, in true Orwellian style, call "capitalism".

And watch your wallet, the socialists are coming for it too.

How can a country go down hill so fast? They were doing great a couple of years back.

DJ - the socialists and communists have been coming for our wallets for a looong time.

Irish exports and manufacturing are doing fine. Bailing out the banks will cripple the country, let Anglo-Irish Bank sink, the average person in Ireland has no loans or savings there, only the fat cats. Having a limit on welfare payments might be an idea though, there are generations of families in Ireland living on the dole, even back when there were plenty of jobs.