1. My biggest thought to night is that perhaps this budget will make people realize that, even with massive amounts of money at it’s disposal, government can not do everything. Schools for example are complaining that they are still going to raise vast amounts of money to run their operations.
Remember, the $10,800,000,000 being spent is extra money. We have roads and hospitals, schools and police already. This is money over and above that which was just fine to run these last year, which was a vast increase on the year before anyway.
Sadly, it’s days like these that make people think they depend on the government to give them stuff. “What did you get from the budget”?
I got nothing – but the government’s going to take less of what I have. Oh wait, I did get a sinking feeling when I realized that Cullen was willing to sacrifice the financial health of our government to prop up his own parties failing fortunes.
2. The last two budgets have had massive surprises in them. When National left power, they had already put in place the Fiscal Responsibility act, the effect of which was to make sure that there were few if any surprises in the budget. What happened to that?
3. Continuing on from the end of point 1, why were we surprised? I think we all deep down believed Cullen when he talked about being a responsible guy with the county’s purse strings, about how he didn’t want to go into debt.
Turns out, Labour’s view on financial responsibility is exactly the same as their position on free speech – another thing to chuck out when the public starts to look at casting their votes for someone else. Yet, they are the first to open up with all guns when their opponents do something that might be construed that way.
Something should go here, maybe later. 