Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrew Dickens: We're inching towards a healthier position

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Andrew Dickens: We're inching towards a healthier position · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I saw the budget once again. The budget. This time
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to do the budget from the point of
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  Speaker 1: view of budget for dummies. So this is the budget
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  Speaker 1: for dummies. It's out. The government's done what it can
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: do with the pickle we're in. Put simply, we don't
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  Speaker 1: collect enough tax to pay for the services we run
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  Speaker 1: and the people we employ in the government. There are
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  Speaker 1: only two fixes to such a problem. Collect more tax.
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  Speaker 1: That is the Left answer, though the last Left government
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  Speaker 1: didn't have the guts to raise taxes even while increasing spending.
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  Speaker 1: The other answer is to cut services and staff and
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  Speaker 1: what you're spending, which is this government's preference. But the
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  Speaker 1: thing about cuts and this sort of spending is it's confidence.
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  Speaker 1: And then when the private sector loses heart, tax revenue
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  Speaker 1: drops even further, and then the problem just keeps on going.
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  Speaker 1: And remember the government is only forty percent of the economy.
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  Speaker 1: Our real future depends on the private sector. That's sixty
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  Speaker 1: percent of the economy. It's where the tax payers actually live.
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  Speaker 1: So they've got to feel good and they've got to
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  Speaker 1: be doing good. So the government is walking a tightrope,
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  Speaker 1: and so honestly, this budget is probably as balanced as
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  Speaker 1: they could make it. Some will argue that we should
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  Speaker 1: slash everything until the book's balance, but the last two
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  Speaker 1: years of austerity light has showed that deep cuts push
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  Speaker 1: the private sector into an even deeper funk, and that's
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  Speaker 1: not good. Here is the good news. Treasury is forecasting
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  Speaker 1: ten point eight billion dollars more in tax revenue over
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  Speaker 1: the next five years without raising taxes. So where's it
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  Speaker 1: coming from. Hopefully you and I are earning more money
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  Speaker 1: because we're working better and the economy's going well. However,
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  Speaker 1: spending is still rising, but because it's not keeping pace
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  Speaker 1: with inflation, it's effectively a real terms cut. I think
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  Speaker 1: it's seven hundred and seventy million dollars right, But in fact,
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  Speaker 1: the way inflation is going on and the way we
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  Speaker 1: spend and just how much we spend, that's actually less
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  Speaker 1: than inflation. That means it's a real cut. But monetarily,
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  Speaker 1: it seems like it's going up anyway. So this budget
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  Speaker 1: says that bit by bit were inching towards a healthier position.
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  Speaker 1: The only other option is raising taxes. And remember even
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  Speaker 1: Chris Hopkins couldn't vote for that last election. For more
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: from Early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: talks at B from five am weekdays, or follow the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: podcast on iHeartRadio.