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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tonto who wrote (523256)	1/13/2004 9:08:23 AM
From: tonto	Respond to of 769669

Fiscal responsibility is not a party issue. Cheerleaders for their teams try to make it such, yet it requires parties cooperation. The elected officials have always waivered from this principle to buy our votes, and have balanced via increased taxation which is not the prudent way to do it. First, all efforts to reduce waste must be expended. That has not occured. The definitions of a "prudent" level of debt, or risk management, a level of Crown net worth that provides a "buffer against future events", or a "reasonable" degree of predictability are not specified in the legislation. It is left to the Government of the day to interpret the relevant fiscal terms in its Budget Policy Statement and Fiscal Strategy Report, and to justify those interpretations to Parliament and the public. This is because there is no one level of debt, for example, that could be considered prudent at all times. What may be considered prudent in 1994 is influenced by the prevailing structure of the economy and its vulnerability to shocks, demographic pressures, the cost of debt servicing in relation to total government spending, and the structure of the Crown’s balance sheet. These, and other relevant factors, are likely to change over time. The presumption here is that governments should follow these principles. Governments are allowed to depart temporarily from these principles if they wish, and for whatever reasons they like. The legislation requires, however, that a government specify its reasons for departure from the principles, how it expects to return to the principles, and when. This recognises the difficulty of attempting to anticipate all future events and, therefore, the need for some short-term policy flexibility, but also requires that departures are transparent and should be only temporary. The approach adopted in the Act avoids the problems associated with targets written into legislation while still encouraging governments to act prudently.