Sunday 25 May 2014

Budget Blues continued

The Government really is suffering from the budget.
Why is this?

Well here is my five cents worth.

  • Before the election the now government essentially said it was all the ALP's fault because of reckless spending and when we are elected we will fix that. In other words we will cut spending and wella no budgetary problem. Reckless spending was never the problem and the Government has never really been able to spell out why the 'problem' is taking so long to fix
  • Allied to that they have an almost incoherent message on why the solving of the budget 'crisis' is taking so long. People think if there is a crisis you solve it quickly not slowly.
  • We also had the problem of the government doing things they previously castigated the previous government for. Class warfare on means testing for example.
  • There are very few people if any who understand fiscal policy who believe there is a budget and debt crisis. 
  • PEFO hangs around their heads. They either understand it and are lying or didn't and are ignorant about simple fiscal policy.
  • The Government said everybody needed to take some pain to 'solve' the budget problem however the pain is highly inequitable as both NATSEM and Peter Whiteford have proved conclusively separably.
  • Neither Tony Abbott nor Joe Hockey are detail people and have made mistakes in their understanding of the budget.
  • All the easy cuts were done by the previous Government particularly in the last full Budget Wayne Swan brought down. So 'courageous' decisions had to be made. These need clear and unambiguous talking by the Government on the need for them. We did not get this.
  • What really topped the week off for the Government was the inability to acknowledge they clearly breached promises to the electorate. This made them look really quite foolish and shifty. As John Howard showed you can breach promises if you have a good reason. This government had NO good reason and they showed that when questioned on it. 

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