The Thrill of Phil

After six months of sniping at National’s response to the economic crisis without providing any alternative suggestions, the amazingly invisible man, Phil Goff, finally gives us a clue what he would do. Firstly, he’d fiddle with tax cuts.

““[National's tax cuts] were not enough and for the needs of the time, they were not appropriate.”

“The $800 million used in the tax cuts benefitted the top strata of income earners but instead could have been given to people with families who earned under $40,000, in order to stimulate the economy.

“The top income earners would not be spending the money from tax cuts in New Zealand; instead, it would be spent overseas or saved.

“Mr Goff said the tax cuts were an election promise on which National had to follow through, and they might have cost New Zealand “thousands if not tens of thousands of jobs”.”

There is, of course, no evidence at all that tax cuts for the “wealthy” (apparently those with salaries above $40,000 a year) would be spent overseas or saved. This is a strange Labour myth, one presumes. I am sorry to burst your bubble, Phil, but National’s tax cut will not induce me to take an overseas trip or increase my savings. I, and my cohort, will be paying down the enormous debts that we have had to endure because we have been overtaxed for the last decade. I suspect our “poorer” brethren will be doing the same. And I fail to see how this will cause the loss of “tens of thousands” of jobs. As our debt decreases, our discretionary spending will increase, stimulating the economy. 

Phil goes on to outline his amazing economic plan:

“If Labour was still in power it would do three things: spend money on retrofitting houses with insulation which would provide jobs, cut power costs for the public and create healthier living conditions; look at encouraging on-the-job training so that when New Zealand came out of a recession, it had skilled workers; and continue with environmental sustainability issues, such as the emissions trading scheme.”

Wow. It looks just like the plan that Labour had six months ago! All that complaining that National had not changed their economic game plan despite the downturn and Labour is offering a policy of no change. ROTFLMAO, Phil! The great game plan is a billion dollars worth of insulation (stimulating a very small portion of our economy, admittedly with some knock on effect), some up-skilling of our workers and an Emissions Trading Scam Scheme designed to rip another $21 billion out of the economy.

I’m really, really glad you are not in charge, Phil. Honestly.

Hat Tip: Homepaddock.

Related posts: