Visiting AEI scholar and Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen writes that the emergency budget proposed by Britain’s new coalition government should be “the envy of Tea Partyers here in the former colonies.” According to today’s op-ed, it includes 25 percent spending cuts on average in all nearly departments and represents the steepest cutbacks in 80 years—and notably includes a two-year wage freeze for many government employees and downsizing expected to eliminate over 600,000 public sector jobs.

There is a not-so-subtle word of caution for taxpayers on this side of the Atlantic. First, tax increases—of about 23 percent—are also part of the deal. Second, what two areas of spending are now considered politically off limits in Whitehall? Not defense, and not education (they do face lower cuts) but foreign aid and healthcare. As Theissen says, “note to GOP: repeal Obamacare fast—once created, national health care is a one-way ratchet.”