In everyday terms, what the government calls a “budget surplus” actually is “savings”.
As the financial policy of the Green Labor government is to create a program of continuous deficit spending, no amount of cutting back on social benefits (such as the baby bonus) may be termed a “budget surplus”. In plain words, a surplus occurs when income proves to be greater than expenditure. It is a no-brainer, for instance, to ask how much income does the baby bonus make over and above the amount taxpayers spend on it; yet, in its mid-year budget, Green Labor has presented this as a vital contribution to its “budget surplus” of – wait for it – $1.3 billion. After all, it does not in the least matter to Green Labor that it has created the national debt of at least $208 billion (with ex-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd predicting it will climb to $300 billion by 2013). By following its own deficit doctrine, Green Labor simply cannot produce a true budget surplus, no matter how much cutting, slicing and chopping it does.
Dr Paul Fidlon,
Armidale
