Healthy

Italian Prime Minister Mario Renzi has worked himself and his Brussels buddies into an apparent state of frenzy.

Mario the defiant one is upset with his EU compatriots because they're questioning his budget plan for exceeding the rules. What rules, those of the elite members of the EU, Germany and France? And who said American politicians and America's MSM had cornered the hypocrisy market? Or for that matter Warren Buffett?

Mario is claiming he and his cohorts did "a very serious budget." But the bureaucratic and often ignored fiscal truth is, the next time the Italians do a serious budget will be the first. Renzi's budget, with a deficit ratio of 2.3 percent of EU regulations and rules, does fall below the required 3 percent limit, but fails to meet other (Wouldn't you guess it?) EU rules and regulations.

But there's a seemingly bigger north-south problem here, an upcoming referendum in Italy that might drive the EU as it now is off the ledge. In 2016 the Brussels' bureaucrats gave Italy a budget break. So the details and the devil, cohabitants once again, create lots of, well, fudging. Italy after all has a whole mountain range of debt. Italian officials want to claim exceptional circumstance for their override troubles, things like earthquakes.

But those stubborn Germans are saying we get it. There is an exceptional circumstances category for your troubles. It's called history. A no EU vote could drive Italy further south. From the Soviet Union to the European Union to something called the union of the United States with their far removed centralized controls and regulations are all under siege today. And there is only one word to describe that: Healthy.