As the ideological debate builds,decisions absorb to be made about how to pay for increasingly expensive services like healthcare, education and pensionsThe ideologically driven “size of government” issue is emerging as a critical political and policy battlefield. This is caused by demographic changes and the electorate’s insistence the government provide decent services that are underpinning what appears to be a structural lift in government spending. whether this is the case and the budget is ever to salvage to surplus, or policies that raise revenue to pay for these services will be needed.
The treasurer,Scott Morrison, claimed last week the budget “problem” (to the extent there is one) was one of excess spending not inadequate revenue. Morrison offered little intellectual evidence for this other than citing out of date data that spending to coarse domestic product (GDP) was above average at 26%.
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Source: theguardian.com