Whilst Joe Hockey has attempted to replace the age of entitlement “not with an age of austerity, but with an age of opportunity,” by taking extreme fiscal measures, the government have focused the 2014-15 Budget on pulling the economy out of deficit in the future, they have not looked at how the Budget is affecting people at this present moment. As a result, Joe Hockey has failed to show fairness in this years’ budget.
Current State of the Economy
Where did the Labor Government leave Australia’s Economy?
The Labor Government have had a major impact on the Australian Economy, which has made it quite difficult for the Coalition to inherit. Joe Hockey stated that “Sixteen years of deficits without a recession, without any significant
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Over the four years from 2009-10 to 2012-2013, Labor had met its fiscal rule of keeping the average spending growth rate to less than 2% a year (Musgrave, R. A. n.d). This was the lowest period of spending growth in 23 years, meaning that not enough money was being injected into the circular flow of income. This reduced aggregate demand as consumer spending was low. In order to ensure that key spending was sustainable, structural improvements were required for the 2014-15 Budget. Overall, the Labor government has left a disastrous legacy of high debt for the Liberal government to try and overcome.
2014-15 Budget Allocation Resources Revenue Expenditure
Education • Gonski Education funding reforms to be unwound, saving the commonwealth up to $30 billion
• University students to repay HELP loans earlier • Subsidies extended to private institutions, given the ability to set their own fees
• Funding commitments are honored
Health • Rudd-era hospital funding deal with states to be unwound, saving the commonwealth up to $50 billion
• Patients will pay a fee of $7 for every GP visit- capped at 10 payments a year for children and concession-card holders.
• $5 of the fee will fund a new medical research fund that will grow to $20 billion
• Medicare safety net will be cut for most people • No expenditure
Welfare • Family Tax Benefit Part B means-tested at $100 000 and removed once children turn six
• Under 30’s will have to wait six months
This report will show an overview of the current state of the Australian economy and its management by the Federal government through examining economic indicators such as economic growth (GDP), unemployment, inflation and trade.
But having a budget is a good step in the right direction. Continuous reexamination is necessary to keep the budget on track. A potential reform for the federal budget is the switch from a short-term budget perspective to a long-term perspective (Budget & Projections, 2015, p. 1). This switch can be beneficial for several reasons. The main beneficial reason is having a greater outlook. Having a greater outlook on future budgetary effects can help policymakers make better-informed decisions in regards to the federal budget. Another potential reform for the budget is to commit and concentrate on spending control. In order to reduce the debt, spending must be under control. A good policy must be in place to ensure the control on spending is a continuous effort by the
A fiscal deficit is when a government's total expenditures exceed the tax revenues that it generates. A budget deficit can be cut by either reducing public expenditure or raising taxes. In this essay, I am going to analyse the benefits and costs of increasing tax rates to reduce fiscal deficits instead of cutting government expenditure.
An indication of the overall impact of fiscal policy (FP) on the state of the economy is the fiscal outcome. The three possible outcomes include a fiscal surplus (positive balance where government expenditure exceeds revenue), fiscal deficit (a negative balance where government revenue exceeds expenditure), and fiscal balance (a zero balance where total government revenue equals expenditure). The main aim of fiscal policy is to achieve fiscal balance, on average, over the course of the economic cycle. The Howard Government targeted a fiscal surplus of 1% of GDP, whereas the current Rudd Government has raised this target to 1.5% of GDP,
Overspending is a pertinent problem facing the lawmakers in Congress. In 2012 discretionary spending reached $1.3 trillion and mandatory spending $2 trillion, while only bringing in $2.5 trillion in revenue. Since the turn of the century back in 2000, non-mandatory spending by the government has topped out a whopping $16.1 trillion just in the past 13 years (Boccia, Frasser & Goff 2013). This persistent overspending on programs and services that are not necessary to the functionality of the country is what is causing the deficit to rise year after year. To remedy this issue the government must either increase the revenue it brings in through taxes and trade or reduce the amount of money it spend or perhaps even both. In 2012 thirty-one cents of every dollar that Washington spent was borrowed (Boccia, Frasser & Goff 2013). Most of which went to large programs such as Social Security and Medicare and if these large, growing programs, or just the budget in general, do not undergo financial reform it could spell disaster for the economy and fiscal state of the nation.
In a recent interview in the Ottawa Citizen, Justin Trudeau spoke on his decision to increase taxation on the wealthy upper class in order to redistribute money to the middle and lower class. This is in response to the issue of stalled median household income where Canada’s GDP has doubled yet household income has only increased by 15% (Kennedy 2015). This hints at income inequality in Canada, as it sheds light at the struggle of middle class families to provide for their families. Parents are having to choose between their retirements or providing education for their child (Kennedy 2015). To Justin Trudeau, this means that “something isn’t working anymore” (Kennedy 2015). Most likely, he senses that the way money is earned and distributed in Canada is highly unbalanced, leading to a income gap between the rich and the poor. Trudeau’s solution to middle class worries is to increases taxation on upper class
Deficit spending is often applied in a political context. However, it can be applied in
Given the critical circumstances the United States economy faces today, the current fiscal policy, in addition to the changes that will be made in the future, is under intense scrutiny. During the Obama administration, which will soon come to an end in about six months, a variety of policies were created in attempts to create employment, raise our GDP, and boost the state of the economy, among other ideas. The fiscal policies created by Congress and the President demonstrate success in some areas, while failing in other areas, as many, including myself, would argue. As the 2016 election quickly approaches, it is important to remember previous fiscal mistakes and successes, and the current economy, in order to better grasp what will be necessary for a successful fiscal policy in the future.
The government needs to take more caution creating the federal budget. Edwards stated that “Consider Canada's experience. In the mid-1990s, the federal government faced a debt crisis caused by overspending, which is similar to America's current situation. But the Canadian government reversed course and slashed spending from 23 percent of GDP in 1993, to 17 percent by 2000, to just 15 percent today. The Canadian economy did not sink into a recession from the cuts as Keynesians would have expected but instead grew strongly during the 1990s and 2000s."
One key initiative for the Federal Budget of 2014/15 is the ‘Deficit Levy’ that will effect over 400 000 of Australia’s high-income earners. From 1 July 2014 until 30 June 2017, the Temporary Budget Repair Levy will
The author, Greg Ip, clarifies in this article that the debt that was acquired during the downturn of the economy and today is not what we should be concerned about for the growth of the economy. He explains that the copious amounts of debt that we should be worried about is what is yet to arise. These so-called debts did include the baby boomers who were retiring and who were requiring their Social Security and Medicare, which will then send the economic debt skyrocketing. Nevertheless, he states that the fiscal budget has been described as better than in the last couple of years, for a few distinct reasons. This article states that one reason for this is because of the over-all deflation in health-care due to the affordable
Per requested, attached is the revised budget and budget justification for Dr. Lucy Dalglish's proposal; along with UMD's NICRA for your review and approval.
Some recession is avoidable and, as I have mentioned above, Australia fared extremely well compared to other developed countries. That was the good news. The bad news, at the time, is that the Australian government, through the decisions it procured, made it worse that it might have otherwise been.
Currently there are many problems and flaws with the way the Canadian government’s policies deal with healthcare, income inequality and poverty. Time to time changes in policies have been made, perhaps to improve these issues, however, the gap between rich and poor keeps increasing and there is very little improvement in healthcare and the economy. In fact, healthcare keeps on becoming costly. Major issues like income inequality and poverty are not being taken care of by the government. According to Dr. Raphael (2002) poverty is caused by several reasons such as inequality in people’s income, weak social services and lack of other social supports (p.VI). He states, “Poverty directly harms the health of those with low incomes while income
Australia is ranked 12th largest economy in the world and is increasingly tied to fast-growing economies in Asia. It has transformed to an open, export oriented market economy with a GDP of approximately 1.5606 trillion USD since the economic reforms program introduced by the government in 1983 (Economy Watch, 2014). These reforms include reducing tariffs and nontariff barriers, floating the Australian dollar, deregulating the financial service sector, increasing efficiency between the federal and state branches of government, and reforming the tax system (Economy Watch, 2014). Today, Australia has a very healthy economy, stable government, sound infrastructure and manufacturing, and superb communication network.