mainly macro: Osborne, Cameron and fiscal irresponsibility

Last Updated: November 15, 2015By

camosborne

Is there anyone left who really believes that George Osborne is cutting public spending because he wants to be prudent with the nation’s finances? Unfortunately I think the answer is far too many.

Most macroeconomists have had deep suspicions or worse for some time, as we could see what damage austerity was doing to the economy. You might say that issue is past as growth has returned, but this would be quite wrong. What is now becoming clear is that the fears that some economists had all along that delaying the recovery in demand would lead to permanent damage to supply have indeed come to pass.

Those who were not macroeconomists should have realised what was going on when the government started cutting taxes. How do you explain cutting inheritance tax one day, and then trying to justify cuts in tax credits because ‘we have to get rid of the budget deficit’ the next, other than helping your own at the expense of the poor?

Even if that did not convince you, I suspect what will happen in the next few years will leave you in no doubt. Everyone knows it is crazy to cut spending that would have generated more income than it costs. Appearing to balance the books by paying for current spending (or tax cuts) by selling off your assets is not being prudent at all. Yet I suspect we will see more and more announcements from the government that do exactly this in the next few years.

To take just one example, we have the announcement of yet more cuts to HMRC, the government’s tax collectors, as part of the new spending review.

Read more: mainly macro: Osborne, Cameron and fiscal irresponsibility

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7 Comments

  1. Mr.Angry November 15, 2015 at 2:09 pm - Reply

    Nothing more than a bunch of hideous criminals the lot of them, personal greed and lack of compassion is in their genes. They were raised on it and nothing is going to change until mass riots take place across this country.

    • Michael Broadhurst November 15, 2015 at 6:00 pm - Reply

      Thats what it will take to get rid of this shower of s***.
      I thought Thatcher’s lot were bad enough,but this Fascist lot take the biscuit.
      I’m 72 and thought I’d seen everything till this lot arrived on the scene.
      A government in a so called democracy that drives its own citizens into poverty, starvation,and death by its genocidal benefit policies.
      It’s sickening it really is.

  2. John Ingamells November 15, 2015 at 3:22 pm - Reply

    Totally correct, these Tories are not implementing this extreme attack on public services and welfare out of necessity it is and always has been ideologically driven. Their total lack of emphasis on recovering vital tax from evasion and avoidance is a clear indicator its driven by a political objective. The many who are suffering?, sick, disabled and vulnerable, as well as those who will lose their lives as a result of deliberate NHS underfunding and undermining, will all be victims of intentional Tory ideology. No ‘ all in this together’ rubbish and balancing the books deception.

  3. Roy Beiley November 15, 2015 at 6:12 pm - Reply

    Has Osbornes pic been photoshopped as he looks nothing like that now?

    • Mike Sivier November 16, 2015 at 2:18 am - Reply

      No, it’s a fairly old pic but the first one I could dig out of him together with Cameron.
      He certainly has aged!

  4. NMac November 16, 2015 at 10:44 am - Reply

    All they have ever wanted out of austerity is tax cuts for the extremely wealthy. Its as simple as that.

    On a separate note, there is no getting away from the fact that Gideon Osborne is a dark, sinister looking character.

    • Michael Broadhurst November 16, 2015 at 1:25 pm - Reply

      this government has killed more UK citizens that what ISIS has.

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