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Between the Green/Labor socialist left wing Party and PUP, havoc, chaos and confusion reigns supreme all in the National interest.

I have never seen in all my born days such stupidity that is currently taking place in politics today....Several warnings have been given by prominent economists and the RBA and still this stupid Labor Party continues on with disruptive tactics to wreck the economy of Australia......They should hang their heads in shame.

THE federal budget will never get close to being fixed if the Senate forces the government to spend money it doesn’t have on tax cuts and handouts it never promised.

Amid all the Palmer drama last week and confusion about the carbon tax repeal, two big decisions were made that raise questions about whether non-government senators are going beyond any mandate they might have and if such actions make future campaign promises by the party that wins an election meaningless.

It is one thing for the Senate to hold a government to account, or to take the rough edges off a policy, but it is wrong for the house of review to try to overthrow the government’s explicit mandate.

The Senate has created an absurd position where it is forcing the government to deliver tax cuts Labor had abolished and keep payments that Tony Abbott repeatedly said he would axe.

This is entirely different to the post-election decisions to impose a deficit tax on high-income earners, which breaks a promise not to increase taxes, or the $7 GP co-payment that was never mentioned before polling day.

Labor’s position on the $700 million a year in income tax cuts is base political hypocrisy.

These tax cuts were dumped by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan in May last year on the eve of Labor’s last budget.

They had been intended as a second round of minor compensation next year under original plans for the carbon price to reach $29 a tonne.

But Labor said they were not needed as an expected 0.2 per cent rise in prices was not going to happen. Labor dropped the tax cut, booked the saving in its budget but never got around to doing the paper work.

Last week, when the Coalition sought to put through the legislation to clean this up, Labor suddenly voted to keep the tax cuts, saying they would protect low- and middle-income families from spending cuts. It joined with the Greens and the crossbench to punch another $2 billion hole in the budget over three years.

The tax cuts are worth $1.59 a week to people earning between $25,000 and $65,000. For those on $70,000, there’s an extra $1.21 a week, while people earning more than $80,000 receive 25c a week.

What game is Labor playing? Its election costings assumed the tax cut was abolished and it now offers no saving elsewhere to pay for it.

The government is being forced to spend money it doesn’t have to deliver a promise it never made that was dropped by a former government 14 months ago.

Money bills can’t originate in the Senate but the upper house is also using a tax cut to compensate people for something that isn’t going to happen as compensation for a set of spending cuts that are being blocked.

The other big hit on the budget was delivered by Clive Palmer, when he abruptly said his Palmer United Party senators would vote against removing some of the big spending linked to the mining tax repeal legislation, at a cost of about $8bn-9bn.

This includes the Schoolkids Bonus, a superannuation tax cut of up to $500 for 3.6 million low-paid workers and tax breaks for small business.

The Prime Minister could not have been clearer that he was going to abolish these payments. There were no weasel words or fine print hidden in costings.

He made a virtue of the unpopular decisions he was willing to take to fix the budget. He said they were linked to the mining tax that failed to raise the revenue to pay for them and when he got rid of the tax they would go too.

The biggest risk he took was saying he would axe the Schoolkids Bonus, describing it as a “cash splash with borrowed money”.

In the 2010 election, Abbott had tried to outbid Labor by offering a bigger, non-means tested, handout.

Now, by dumping it, Abbott insis*ted he would not shirk hard decisions.

He would end the payment for about 1.3 million eligible families of $410 a year for each child in prim*ary school and $820 for each child at secondary school.

Labor relentlessly highlighted during the election that, under Abbot*t,* a family with two kids would lose payments worth about $15,000 over their school life.

These were potentially vote-losing policies. Labor campaigned hard against the unfairness of each measure.

It made strong arguments direct*ly to the people and lost.

Regardless of whether these are good or bad policies, the government was clear about what it would do.

It’s a bit rich for Labor to attack Abbott for breaking other promises when they are forcing him to break pledges he is trying to keep just because they don’t like them.

Palmer, however, is a shameless populist wanting to play havoc with Abbott’s agenda and the budget.

Palmer wants to spend billions of dollars of borrowed money with no credible or costed plan to raise matching revenue.

It all seems to be based on the Magic Palmer Money Tree that certainly sounds too good to be true.

When he is put on the spot, he rattles off a list of discredited savings ideas and blusters that the government has “got plenty of money (and) Joe Hockey’s just pulling your leg”.

Palmer is campaigning for the next election but doesn’t like it when questions scratch below his facade, whether it relates to his business affairs, political negotiations or policies.

He’ll be at it again today, seeking to be the centre of attention over the carbon tax.

It suits Bill Shorten and Labor for Abbott to look like he is not in control and for the budget to be a shambles.

But they all should all heed the warning by Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens in The Weekend Australian that political leaders deferring tough decisions to tackle the budget deficit could expose Australia to a much greater risk of a more serious economic downturn when the next one does occur.

And then the sorts of spending cuts and revenue grabs a government might be forced to make might be truly unpalatable.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/budget-bluster-and-havoc-bring-truly-unpalatable-choices-closer/story-fnmnl1y0-1226987520382