What next.

Stuff: Why we can't afford tax cuts

The way I see it this about sums up the whole story "Finance Minister Michael Cullen said the report showed how serious trade-offs had to be made in every budget. "

So what we have here is Dr. Cullen, desperate for some hard evidence that tax cuts are not affordable, has asked the Treasury to get at least one shred of evidence that we cannot afford tax cuts now.

So if we keep ratcheting up taxes as the current Govt seems to like doing, just what will our tax rate be in 20 years ? 70% ?

How can it be that with an aging population, and no substantial expansion foreseen in the population, we are not expecting a large fall in overall Govt expenditure excluding health. The Police numbers should surely decrease, roading expenditure should decrease, housing costs should go down as fewer people require large houses, schooling costs should decline etc etc.