What Would the Opposition Cut?
We are facing the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression. President Barack Obama gets it. That's why he introduced multiple recovery packages that create jobs and soften the impacts of the global financial crisis. In the short term, those packages cost hundreds of billions of dollars. But, they also soften the blow of the recession and put America on the road to economic recovery.
In America, the Republican Party is outraged. Instead of investing and stimulating the American economy, the Republicans prefer to make savage cuts to programmes that create jobs and help people in the midst of a recession.
Sound familiar?
In today's daily, the two opposition parties once again sang from the same song sheet written by the Republican Party. Like President Obama and the Democratic Party, Minister Paula Cox and the PLP Government disagree with their right wing approach.
Bob Richards and Michael Fahy both bemoan spending, but, we've yet to hear what programmes either of them would cut if they were in government. Their 'foreign consultants' argument is a red herring. There is simply not enough spending there to cut without grinding necessary services that government provides to people to a complete halt.
So, what would they really cut?
They aren't telling us. But, we know where their loyalties lay. They are the parties of Front Street. They believe in catering to their clubby friends because, after all, if their friends are doing well, that success is going to trickle down to the rest of us. So, don't expect them to pursue any policies that will hurt them.
So, with that off the table, what will Michael Fahy and Bob Richards cut? Perhaps they'll cut free transportation for our students and make our young people pay once more to take safe and reliable public transportation. Perhaps they'll cut the PLP Government's landmark DayCare programme that helps working families with quality child care. Perhaps they'll cut free tuition to Bermuda College that's helping thousands of Bermudians get the educational opportunities they need to succeed. Perhaps they will cut funding for education and cut salaries for teachers, make class sizes larger and allow our schools to fall into disrepair. Or, perhaps they'll cut FutureCare, a programme that is already giving healthcare security to thousands of our seniors. The truth is, we don't know what they'll cut because they won't tell us.
There is another way. Like President Obama, we are investing in our people and our economy during this recession to see us through. As the recovery progresses, we'll see additional revenues that will help us bring down our already low debt.
The truth his, our debt load is not as bad as the fearmongerers in the combined opposition would have you believe. Just as international business didn't "turn the lights out" after the PLP Government was elected in 1998, as Grant Gibbons predicted, nor are we at the precipice of economic calamity now. The truth is, Bermuda's credit rating remains a solid double A as rated by Moody's, S&P and Fitch. There's more. As Minister Paula Cox noted, "The actual amount of Bermuda’s long term debt amounts to about 11 per cent of GDP. Other countries with which Bermuda is often compared have much higher debt/GDP ratios. In the Cayman Islands in June 2009, the debt/GDP ratio was 19.8 per cent of GDP. In Switzerland, it was 44.4 per cent in 2009, 71 per cent for the United Kingdom and 83.9 per cent for the United States."
This latest assault is just more fear and smear from an opposition that has trained it's combined guns on a popular Finance Minister. They're hungry for power and will do whatever it takes to take her down. For them, this isn't about principle or good government. It's about reclaiming power for their clubby friends at all costs.
