Cullen slams Brash bribe

Finance Minister Michael Cullen today slammed Don Brash’s promises of tax cuts as a bribe paid for by borrowing saying the people would pay with higher interest rates and – eventually – with cuts in spending.

“Dr Brash and John Key have been quite clear that they would borrow to pay for tax cuts. It would be back to the Muldoon era as debt climbed.

“With the Reserve Bank Governor still expressing concern about inflationary pressures, feeding further demand with tax cuts would inevitably risk higher interest rates.

“It is also clear that National’s proposals would heavily disadvantage the nearly 90 per cent of income tax payers who do not earn above $60,000 – and those a little above that line would not get much.

“Nor could they be delivered before Christmas.

“The real losers would be New Zealanders who would end up paying higher interest rates, and facing the kinds of cuts in social servicves and superannuation we saw last time National was in power,” Dr Cullen said.

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