National's fiscally irresponsible tax cuts | The Jackal

15 May 2012

National's fiscally irresponsible tax cuts

Yesterday, the Scoop reported:

Govt’s 2010 tax cuts costing $2 billion and counting

The Green Party has today revealed that the National Government has so far had to borrow an additional $2 billion dollars to fund their 2010 tax cut package for upper income earners.

New information prepared for the Green Party by the Parliamentary Library show that the estimated lost tax revenues from National’s 2010 tax cut package are between $1.6–$2.2 billion. The lost revenue calculation includes company and personal income tax revenues offset by increases in GST.

“The National Government said that their signature 2010 income tax cut package would be ‘fiscally neutral’ — paid for increased revenues from raising GST. That hasn’t happened. The net cost for tax cuts has been about $2 billion,” Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today.

“Borrowing $2 billion in 18 months to fund upper-income tax cuts is fiscally irresponsible.

“National’s poor economic decisions have led to record levels of government debt and borrowing.

Along with unprecedented numbers of Kiwis permanently leaving New Zealand for a brighter future overseas, National has increased unemployment to 6.7% and ensured retail is stagnant due to flat wages. Export prices are also in free-fall making any economic recovery even more dependent on a functional internal market.

National's mishandling of the economy could result in a double dip recession, which in comparison to Australia's growth and $2 billion surplus would categorically show National's economic bungling. They can no-longer use the GFC as an excuse for their failure.

John Key simply has no solution apart from the same old laissez-faire ideology and free-market bullshit that got us into this mess in the first place. It has become abundantly clear that we're currently being governed by a bunch fools!