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| Catalonia, Spain, and EU flags |
Spain, or in this case, Catalonia voted for its parliament on Sunday. The agenda of the election is the independence of the state. The head of the ruling majority party CiU, Artur Mas has set out the issue up front. The election results shows the people in Catalonia voted for independence, giving the pro-independence parties 87 out of 135 seats, a clear mandate. The CiU, however, has lost its seats from 62 to 50.
The White House reiterated its determination to keep the campaign promise to take the balanced approach on budget. The Press Secretary Jay Carney announced that President Obama will not sign the tax cut extension to the rich. It is estimated that not extending the middle class tax cuts will result in the consumer spending down by $200 billion and the GDP down by -1.3%.