A surtax of FFr22 billion ($3.56 billion) has been slapped on business and FFr10 billion pruned from this year's government spending in a bid to bring the deficit "close" to the 3% Maastricht target this year and at it or below it, according to latest government forecasts, next year.
There might be calls for federal standards and a surtax on the priciest toys.
Mr Obama and Senate Democrats would like to expand the payroll-tax cut and finance it with a surtax on millionaires over the next ten years.
This is deceptive, however: he would also impose a 10% "surtax" on families earning more than $450,000, so their top rate drops only to 35%.
The House version soaks the rich with a 5.4% income surtax on individuals making more than $500,000.
In addition to reversing Mr Bush's tax cuts for the rich, Mr Lieberman proposes a 5% surtax on couples earning more than $250,000.
On the right, small-business owners feel betrayed by a Liberal-led cabinet that has raised value-added tax and imposed a surtax on high incomes.
Our own Economist/YouGov poll finds that a majority of Americans would like to see the payroll-tax cut extended, for example, and two-thirds of those think a surtax on millionaires is the best way to pay for it.Yet Mr Obama has been harping on about raising taxes on the rich since his first election campaign.
Transport for London (TfL), the capital's devolved transport operator, and the Greater London Authority are contributing £7.7 billion in total, including £3.5 billion from a special surtax on London businesses.
He will be replaced by Juan Carlos Pinzón, the chief of staff to President Juan Manuel Santos.Bumbling BerlusconiDoubts were raised about Italy's commitment to confront its debt crisis when Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, withdrew a plan to impose a surtax on higher private-sector incomes that had been included in an emergency budget presented to parliament only weeks ago.
The coalition parties' concessions to each other had meant that each of them had lost support since the election the PvdA for having agreed to layoffs, pay freezes in the public sector, and restrictive policies toward immigrants and the VVD for having agreed to raising the value-added tax and imposing a surtax on high incomes.
