Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, May 2nd, 2011 - 65 comments
You’re the ruling government. Which do you choose, tax cuts for 47 millionaires or salaries for 121 new teachers? It’s not a hypothetical question…
Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, April 27th, 2011 - 7 comments
The same scenario of tax cuts, national debt, and public spending cuts is being played out in New Zealand, Britain and the USA. Here’s the right wing argument in a nutshell…
Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, April 11th, 2011 - 24 comments
Bernard Hickey sets out the “theory” behind National’s tax cuts, and sums up the impact of the tax package as a whole: “Simply put, it’s not working”.
Why isn’t it working? Well the fact that the theory is nonsense probably doesn’t help…
Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, April 3rd, 2011 - 84 comments
The economy, shall we say politely, is facing some difficulties. With a National government there was no plan as to how to weather the economic storm, we just got tax cuts for the rich and an economy that just can’t get growing.
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, March 30th, 2011 - 62 comments
Key and English are trying to soften us up for big public service cuts this budget. They tell us it’ll just be ‘nice to haves’ and that the private sector will step in to fill the gap when they cut too close to the bone. The important thing to realise is that every time the public service doesn’t provide us with something either we have to buy it out of our own pockets (usually at greater cost) or we don’t get it at all.
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, March 24th, 2011 - 24 comments
So what are you gonna do with the 9K of tax cuts you got with your 400K pa job since October? Why not pay 7K to shack up with 65 of the elite and eat a 6 course meal from foreign chefs?… What do you mean you’re not on 400K, you haven’t pocketed 9K in the last 5 months, and price rises ate your ‘tax cut’? You need a real job.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, March 23rd, 2011 - 43 comments
The Nats want us to believe there is no other option than massive cuts to government spending. Roughly, a third of the cuts covers the earthquake rebuilding, another third covers the Nats’ tax cuts for the rich, and the last third covers the revenue loss from this neverending recession. So, how come the Nats can afford another round of tax cuts for the rich?
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, March 22nd, 2011 - 74 comments
“The worldwide recession is not your fault… You are being softened up for cuts in social spending… It’s easy to see the people this government is looking after. If you are a bank boss on $5.6million, helping cause a recession, you get an extra five thousand a week. If you are on the minimum wage – you get an extra 25 cents an hour.”
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, March 9th, 2011 - 20 comments
Hey National – stop lying and inventing dodgy stats to try and prove that we’re all better off. The tax cut received by most people was derisory, and the cost of living is shooting up fast. Even the Kiwiblog heartland isn’t buying the lies. If you can’t convince them, you can’t convince anyone…
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, February 16th, 2011 - 27 comments
As you know, National has been trying to justify selling off our assets and cutting our public services to pay for tax cuts for the rich by saying that debt is at dangerous levels and we risk a credit downgrade. Numerous commentators have shown that’s false. Now, the final nail in the coffin has come from credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.
Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, February 10th, 2011 - 65 comments
Key proved he’s bereft of ideas in his speech on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he showed he’s out of touch. As you know, Key has voted himself $23,000 of tax cuts on his PM salary alone. Labour estimates another $24,000 on his investments – over $1000 a week. Key argues his tax cut is ‘only’ $15,000.
Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, February 1st, 2011 - 27 comments
The early childhood education cuts have hit – families will face an average $20-$45 a week increase in the cost of sending a kid to kindy. And Anne Tolley is signaling more to come. But it’s not just the education of the next generation that’s for the chop as National seeks to balance the books after its tax cuts for the rich binge.
Written By: - Date published: 11:12 pm, January 10th, 2011 - 93 comments
No, this post isn’t about Smile and Wave’s failure to close the gap with Australia. It’s about the widening gap between the tiny elite in this country and the rest of us. Even before the Great Recession, 10% controlled more wealth than the rest of us combined. The housing market shows that their wealth is still rising while ours falls.
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, December 21st, 2010 - 13 comments
National still seem to be getting a lot of cover for their economic mismanagement from the Global Financial Crisis way back in 2007-2008. But New Zealand’s failure to be “roaring out of recession”, as John Key promised, is no longer tied to the GFC. It’s Bill English and National’s economic policies that mean that the government deficit is pushing the limits with no reward for average kiwis.
Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, December 16th, 2010 - 67 comments
Tax cuts don’t cause growth, and even some of the right wing commentators are starting to admit it. The Nats’ tax cuts aren’t “broadly neutral” either, and that is why the deficit is blowing out. National’s one and only economic policy is busted. Now what?
Written By: - Date published: 12:39 pm, December 14th, 2010 - 50 comments
Let’s face it. A government doesn’t accidentally spend $15 billion more than its revenue while cutting billions in taxes. The unsustainably high deficit is intentional policy, not happenstance. In good times and bad, National’s answer is always to cut taxes. The objective is to make huge deficits that then need to be ‘fixed’ with spending cuts.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, December 14th, 2010 - 37 comments
Do you feel better off after the great tax swindle? Two recent surveys have shown that the significant majority of us do not. John Key has expressed his surprise at our ingratitude. But the numbers tell the story. Most of us don’t feel better off because we aren’t better off. The only surprise is that John Key is so completely out of touch as to fail to understand this.
Written By: - Date published: 6:19 am, December 14th, 2010 - 52 comments
Two years ago we had one of the best government balance sheets in the world. Key said we didn’t have a debt problem. Two years of him as PM, and we sure have one now. When we learn exactly how dire things are later today, remember that National brought this on us by borrowing $3 billion a year for tax cuts that no-one noticed.
Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, November 10th, 2010 - 11 comments
The Budget 2010 tax cuts for the rich were supposed to be paid for by magical extra growth. But the growth isn’t happening and the government now has a $2.2 billion shortfall in income. So the tax cuts aren’t “broadly neutral” at all. We’re paying for them with borrowing. Is that “Ambitious for New Zealand”?
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, September 1st, 2010 - 10 comments
Key says that teachers are “disconnected from the real world” for wanting a pay rise that will barely beat inflation. This from the same guy who promised higher wages. The same guy chucked half a billion dollars this year alone on the taxpayer credit card for tax cuts for the rich. The only people disconnected from the real world are those who think skimping on education and health will take this country forward.
Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, May 24th, 2010 - 30 comments
Tories claim that tax cuts “cause growth” in the economy – they “grow the pie”. But it’s rubbish. No honest review of the long term historical picture can sustain the claim. Tax cuts don’t cause growth.
Written By: - Date published: 6:27 am, May 22nd, 2010 - 38 comments
Amongst all the budget reaction, there is a group of people that I don’t understand. They are the small group who are very well off, and who are nevertheless exulting about tax cuts that give them a few tens of dollars a week. Is your allegiance really purchased so cheaply?
Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, March 14th, 2010 - 16 comments
Under National’s proposed tax cuts and GST increases someone on the average wage of $48,000 comes out about $5 to $10 per week ahead. But 70% of Kiwis have incomes under $40,000. Their tax cuts will barely compensate them for the GST increase. How can National go on claiming that “the vast bulk of New Zealanders will be better offâ€?
Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, June 2nd, 2009 - 45 comments
Tax cuts are the right wing’s favourite answer to every question. Before the election, National were promising us that tax cuts were the key to economic growth: Key: “National will deliver an ongoing programme of personal tax cuts. Fundamentally, National believes in the growth-enhancing power of tax cuts. Labour does not.” English: “… all the […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:11 pm, May 29th, 2009 - 16 comments
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the right when Labour and the Greens filibustered the other week to draw the public’s attention to the supercity bill being rammed through Parliament. ‘Think of the cost”, they cried, which makes me wonder why they don’t propose getting rid of Parliament altogether to save a […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, May 26th, 2008 - 42 comments
With a loving smack that would have brought a smile to Bob McCoskrie’s face, the Herald‘s editorial today rebukes John Key in the strongest terms it can. Now that the Budget is behind us, the National Party has less excuse for indecision on most of the important economic issues facing the country at the coming […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, May 24th, 2008 - 62 comments
Key’s best trick is to answer questions with impressive or technical sounding assertions that stop the line of questioning but don’t actually tell us anything. When he does that, interviewers need to push him to explain himself. Here’s a few paraphrased examples from the last couple of week: Q. ‘What don’t you like about the […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, May 22nd, 2008 - 44 comments
The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’: $750 million of new health spending ($160 million for elective services) -Pork $700 million for Fast Forward Fund, food and pastoral sector research -Pork $665 million to buy the national rail operations […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:34 pm, May 13th, 2008 - 139 comments
Rodney Hide is calling for the Budget’s tax cuts to take the form of raising the thresholds to account for inflation since 1999, removing of the 39 cent bracket, and a $10,000 tax-free bracket. What would ACT’s tax cuts entail for New Zealanders? Hide says the average cut would be $50 a week, so we […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, May 9th, 2008 - 55 comments
Now that Michael Cullen has ruled out a tax-free bracket but promised that everyone will benefit from Labour’s tax-cut package, what cuts will he give? The simplest option would be to cut the bottom tax rate, which would deliver a tax cut for everyone. As a percentage of income the tax cut would be largest […]
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