In ordinary lingo, when you hear about something being a “budget item”, you know it ain’t expensive – and certainly not extravagant. So, in the States, the company that decided to take on Hertz – the biggest car-rental company – called itself “Budget Car Rental”, to signal that its prices were lower! For ordinary folks, “being on a budget” means you’re watching what you spend, to make sure you don’t “exceed your budget”. So, with the Government’s Budget 2024 out there, waiting to be debated by them and the Opposition, let’s see how we can connect Budgets with our own lives, shall we?
Basically, a Budget’s put together whenever you consider what money you got or what you’ll be getting in a specific time frame – generally a year – and then decide which of the things you think you need and can afford. Now, this is basic common sense, innit?? So, when you hear the Opposition criticising the Budget in Parliament next week, just keep this simple idea in your head. From what your Eyewitness has been hearing, the Opposition is singing the tune that since our country’s getting more money, we oughta be spending more – much more. But then comes the trillion-dollar question: what exactly should we be spending the money on?? Well, we already pointed out that it should be on what we NEED.
And that’s where we have a problem, since the Government is already spending more – as evidenced by the FIRST trillion-dollar budget. From what your Eyewitness gathers, the Government is looking at the future, when we wouldn’t have the oil revenues no mo’ – we only have 15 billion barrels or so, after all – and are trying to create an economy that would be sustainably prosperous. On the other hand, the Opposition looks at the poverty that abounds in the here and now and wants the Government to be doling out $1 million to every family every year, and use whatever it takes to get more money into the citizens’ pockets to spend. Lower taxes, increase salaries and pensions, and more handouts, etc.
So, dear reader, it’s up to each one of us to decide which path we should travel: live high off the hog right now with the Opposition, and let the future take care of itself, or build something that’ll take care of us and our children in the future!!
Now, this choice on how we handle our budget is so old that there’s even an Aesop tale about it down the ages – the Ant and the Grasshopper! The grasshopper spent as fast as he earned, and scoffed at the ant who was saving for the future. When winter arrived, guess who was left in the cold?
Remember the tale come next Monday!
…barbs
Some sniffed that the Finance Minster’s Budget presentation was marred by the unseeming and crude interruptions of the Opposition. The general consensus was that while interruptions are OK, they ought to be witty, and not crude. But your Eyewitness thinks that’s a bit snooty – and doesn’t reflect the new ethos in politics in the countries we model ourselves on. The new normal is exemplified by some of the repartee of Republican Trump against Democrats.
On one occasion, according to a report, “Trump called one GOP rival a “son of a b—-,” referred to another as “birdbrain”, and had the crowd shrieking with laughter at his comments on Rep. Adam B. Schiff, whom he called “pencil neck”, before asking, “How does he hold up that fat, ugly face?” He brought the house down while mocking Biden, at one point baselessly suggesting Biden is using drugs and can’t get offstage “by the time whatever it is he’s taken wears off.”
Good thing the goodly Minister gave as good as he got!!
…nurses
Your Eyewitness is trying to understand the phenomenon of us training nurses – only to see them emigrate. Now he hears we’ll be importing even more Cuban nurses. Can’t we find a way to retain the locals?
