Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, June 1st, 2023 - 64 comments
The pros & cons of tax cuts vs. universalism suggest that universalism might be universally better for New Zealand.
Written By: - Date published: 7:53 pm, February 21st, 2019 - 129 comments
Let’s talk about why houses, art, and basically everything should be in the new Capital Gains Tax that Labour and New Zealand First should get onboard with, contrary to their reservations.
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, September 3rd, 2017 - 27 comments
It is very heartening to see Kiwis rejecting National’s tax cut bribe (and English’s arrogant debate rhetoric) – in favour of supporting each other and backing Labour’s policies for a better NZ.
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, July 21st, 2017 - 54 comments
Auckland City Councilor Richard Hills yesterday tweeted some of the things we would like to see fixed before a tax cut. You might want to add to the list. Good thing Labour is promising to cancel the cuts and spend billions more on health and education.
Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, July 20th, 2017 - 27 comments
According to Morning Report the Nats are calling Labour’s budget for more spending on health and education “a plan to waste more money”. Tell it to the people who can’t afford private alternatives and depend on the public systems.
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, July 14th, 2017 - 62 comments
Herald editorial: “Credit where it is due. It takes courage to say that if elected, you will cancel a tax cut. … In doing so it has presented the voters with a clear choice which, for those without young families or earning above the income limits, will mean deciding whether to take the tax cut or give the benefit to children of the less well off.”
Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, July 11th, 2017 - 101 comments
As covered by Vernon Small on Stuff: “Labour is promising to scrap National’s Budget tax cut plan. Instead it will funnel the cash into higher Working for Families payments and extra help for those with young children. It’s a package it says will deliver up to $48 a week extra to middle income families.”
Written By: - Date published: 2:53 pm, May 31st, 2017 - 16 comments
One of the nasty little fishhooks in the budget was the cutting of the home insulation scheme (Warm Up New Zealand). The scheme had a benefit-cost ratio of $6 for every $1 invested. Around 1,600 people die in NZ a year of cold-related factors. Hope the tax cuts are worth it eh?
Written By: - Date published: 2:26 pm, March 15th, 2017 - 9 comments
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, March 13th, 2017 - 73 comments
Never mind the record debt, the dropped contributions to the Cullen fund, the housing crisis, rising poverty, the deteriorating health system, the costs of quake rebuilds, the filthy water, the need to prepare for climate change – never mind all that, have an election bribe!
Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, February 20th, 2017 - 46 comments
As Finance Minister Bill English effectively ruled out tax cuts, but it’s election year, and so of course the Nats can’t help but trot out their one-trick election pony again.
Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, December 11th, 2016 - 15 comments
Tax cuts – the Nats are continuing to rule them both in and out for the election. Incoherence or deliberate strategy? Either way – Key got away with this kind of bullshit for 8 long years – are we going to let it continue?
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, November 21st, 2016 - 94 comments
Despite the unknown cost of the quakes, and the host of other urgent needs, Key is once again talking up election-bribe tax cuts.
Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, October 19th, 2016 - 8 comments
Herald: “…the Government ought to be banking surpluses, just as Sir Michael Cullen did during the boom of 2000-2007”.
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, October 14th, 2016 - 125 comments
In Year Eight of this National government, the idea of a budget surplus is a joke. They’ve promised it for nearly a decade. They’ve fiddled the books. The truth is, there is no surplus.
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, May 17th, 2016 - 90 comments
English is right, Key is lying and he knows it. But Key would rather we were talking about the mirage of tax cuts (again) than current events like the protection of corrupt tax havens or our homeless living in cars.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, August 28th, 2015 - 34 comments
Simon Louisson recently made a post about National’s profligacy, and all of the debt they have racked up. Guest poster Michael disagrees with Simon and says that “Yes, National was profligate.” and “No, National should not have balanced the books.”
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, March 8th, 2015 - 30 comments
A National government which loves to cut taxs + workers and business being overcharged ACC levies = levy cuts, right? Wrong!
Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, December 18th, 2014 - 9 comments
National are not responsible for the eventual recovery, they are responsible for delaying it.
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 pm, September 10th, 2014 - 141 comments
David Cunliffe’s performance in tonight’s head-to-head with John Key was exactly what I wanted to see from the next Labour Prime Minister of NZ.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, September 9th, 2014 - 49 comments
The economy is a mess, the Nats have no ideas, and their current policies (e.g. hypothetical tax cuts) are getting laughed out of town. National is useless on the economy, and the sooner we the people wake up to this fact, the better off we will be.
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 pm, September 7th, 2014 - 84 comments
Duncan Garner asks – “when we’ve just borrowed $55b over 6 years how on earth are tax cuts suddenly affordable?”. Presumably it’s a rhetorical question…
Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, September 4th, 2014 - 76 comments
John Key and National are talking about tax cuts. But when you think about the actual cost of the Christchurch rebuild and tumbling international milk prices you have to question if tax cuts are affordable or even justifiable.
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, August 26th, 2014 - 7 comments
So National are both so out of ideas and so desperate to take the spotlight off their Dirty Politics that they’re now promising tax cuts. Tax cuts straight after we have a panel of our most prominent economists warning that the ‘rock star’ economy is going to hit the rocks.
Written By: - Date published: 6:20 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 52 comments
According to the PM, Bill English saying there won’t be tax cuts was both true and untrue at the same time, like a fiscal Schroedinger’s Cat.
Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, April 9th, 2014 - 13 comments
Local bodies points out a couple more of the National government’s sad-sacks. For some strange (but obvious) reason a warmish market for milk powder doesn’t do much for NZ apart from destroying our environment. English’s taxcuts for his wealthy mates have destroyed the fiscal base of the government and done nothing to cause any investment in the productive and employable parts of our economy. Tim Groser has also made an artform of making NZ worse off.
Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, March 29th, 2013 - 190 comments
The ideological loonies advising the government want us to go even further down the stupid and damaging path of income tax cuts. Surely even the Nats have too much sense to listen this time.
Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, April 4th, 2012 - 46 comments
The “fiscally neutral” tax cuts never were neutral at all, and a lower than expected tax take is hitting the government’s books. But Key is still out there repeating the lie.
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, August 12th, 2011 - 122 comments
Farrar and others of the Right push for ever lower taxes, but their arguments are laughably flimsy. Tax cuts don’t raise revenue. Tax cuts don’t cause growth. In search of their “superior moral justification for selfishness” the Right are going to have to do a lot better than that…
Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, May 15th, 2011 - 19 comments
Paul Krugman on the real reasons for the economic carnage. Not social spending policies, but the daft economic policies of the right-wing “policy elites”. Our focus should not be on slashing spending, but on National’s stupid, unaffordable tax cuts.
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