(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

Yay, Keith Ng blogs again!

Meanwhile, part of ACT's coalition deal with the Nats is the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, which caps government spending, saying it cannot rise above inflation.

This sounds intuitively bad to me (what happens the year after a recession? What certain services become cheaper and others become more expensive? what happens after temporary budget cuts? What happens when we have national emergencies? What happens if we go to war?) but apparently they already tried it in Colorado and proved that it sucks! Awesome, I'm so looking forward to the next three years.

Comments

[aleph-naught.livejournal.com]

The deal says that the Nats must support it to Select Committee - I seriously doubt though that they will support it past that point as it'd make it spectacularly difficult for them to govern. The Nats may be fucktards but unlike ACT they do at least have an iota of pragmatism buried in their black little hearts.

[aleph-naught.livejournal.com]

That being said I think that ACT probably realize this and hope to create public debate around the issue. The apparent endorsement of one of the major parties will make it seem less crazy to the politically uneducated. It would be annoying if something like that became part of our political discourse, but it's probably not too much to worry about.

All of that aside, the possibility (however minute) of this actually becoming law is pretty fucking scary.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

It would be annoying if something like that became part of our political discourse, but it's probably not too much to worry about.

Yes, I thought this about the possibility of Roger Douglas returning to Parliament, too, which is kind of my sticking point because... here he is.

[aleph-naught.livejournal.com]

Good point. *assumes foetal position*