Charts Only: Opposition’s 2018 Budget Reply
For those seeking a quick visual view of the Opposition’s official response to the 2018 Budget, which was delivered in the House of Assembly by Opposition Leader and Shadow Finance Minister Jeanne Atherden today [Feb 23], the charts extracted from the Reply are below. You can view our live updates of the Budget Reply here, the complete Reply to the Budget here, and view all our coverage of the 2018 Budget here.
OBA almost DOUBLED the debt in one term (1,236 to 2,398) but the spin is FUNNY (433% to 62%)
OBA did MORE Damage in 5yrs than PLP in 14yrs
BERMUDA BERMUDA BERMUDA
The PLP left a $400mn deficit in 2012 when they were voted out.
During their term the OBA more than halved that number. And that is without one forced redundancy of any civil servant position (the largest expense to the Government).
If they were to ensure that no further debt was added during their reign they would’ve had to enact draconian cuts across the board to close the PLP’s $400mn deficit. The shock to the economy would’ve been catastrophic. As a result they followed the SAGE Commission’s ‘glide path’ to deficit reduction.
If the PLP didn’t overspend by almost HALF A BILLION DOLLARS a year the debt mountain we are being consumed by would’ve never come to fruition. Just because a change in Government happens doesn’t mean the previous spending commitments are wiped clean.
Due to the efforts by former Finance Minister Richards (the one’s that the PLP railed against for almost 5 years), the PLP is able to issue raises to the civil service and increase spending in other areas. It is simply history repeating itself.
Therefore, your argument is disingenuous and quite frankly ignorant.
The PLP said they’d spend more than the OBA in 2012 and attacked the OBA plans to reduce spending.
Basically if we’d had a PLP government 2012 to 2017 we would already have defaulted on debt and laid off thousands.
Leave math to the big boys. Remember, you won 24-12. You don’t have to lie anymore.
Just as the America’s Cup did not cost 100mil the explanation on this has been given over and over but you choose to continue spinning it .
I’ll give you a clue .. one of the alternatives was to lay of 1/2 of the Civil Service.
How would that have gone down with you ?
Oh! You seem to like this debt now , eh ?
No you just totally ignored the fact that they DID double the debt in a shorter time. Forget the Americas cup. What about the doubled debt under the OBA which it seems every time this is brought up u OBA lot run from this and deflect as usual
Because they were paying off accrued PLP interest.
It’s a waste of time , huh ? They either don’t get it or they don’t want to get it .
And every time you ask them how they’d feel about 1/2 the civil service being made redundant they change the subject to something else ,normally another myth or lie.
What is bigger? …
62%,
Or 433%?
Take your time.
62% of 1 billion is bigger than 433% of 1 million
Also… do you think 2.4 is “double” 1.4?
Is that “Burt math”?
I did say ‘almost’ but OBA supporters tend to overlook facts
2013 was a PLP year in terms of budget since realistically oba were only in power for tail end of 2012/2013. FYE 2014 is the first exclusively OBA budget year.
You also fail to explain the fact that PLP QUINTUPLED debt.
Thank God above AGAIN that the hopeless O.B.A. are out. Their political agenda was dysfunctionally driven by foolish policies put in place over a short period of time. HHmm… God definitely did not like UGLY!!
The current Opposition Leader Jean Atheden has stated that ” O.B.A. paved the way. Well from a true Bermudian’s perspective, nothing was paved….only a way and a means for foreigners to come here and usurp what Bermudians are all about.
Au Revoir, the fragmented Opposition!!
It will interesting to see what effect Premier Burt’s 2018 budget has in 4 years time. His budget calls for many more expats, loosening the control of companies by Bermudians by allowing foreign companies more access to set up local companies, fairy tale dreams of growth, and more borrowing. In fact pretty much a return to the policies of 2008-2012, just reworded so PLP supporters think it’s a great plan.