Hollande taxes the rich

President François Hollande affirmed time and again during the campaign that he would tax France's wealthiest and put right the country's finances.

He's achieved the former. The latter remains to be seen. 

Big business, banks, and the wealthiest households will pay most of 7.2 billion euros in tax increases. They will pay more next year, according to the Guardian. 

“We face an extremely difficult financial and economic situation,” said finance minister, Pierre Moscovici, at a news conference, according to the New York Times. “The wealthiest households, the big companies, will be asked to contribute. In 2012 and 2013, the effort will be particularly big.”

Fracnce must take in an extra six to 10 billion euros, or $7.5 billion to $12.5 billion, in 2012 to reduce their budget deficit to 4.5 percent of GDP, wrote the New York Times back in July, citing France's national audit office, the Cour des Comptes. 

French citizen Stanislas de Bentzmann, co-chief executive of Devoteam, a computer systems company, told the Washington Post:

“We pay a pretty high level of tax already. The money we earned was not stolen. I switch on the radio and I hear the news that the government is doing the opposite of what I think it should do. In this kind of mood, investment decisions are not stimulated in this country.”

So does this debate seem familiar?