Cowen takes baby steps to recovery by blaming the children
Surprisingly, the Taoiseach concluded it wasn’t him, or the Galway tent mafia, or even the skanky bankers. No, the rest of us got it so wrong – the real economic vandals were the poor all along.
Seems it was not the plutocratic banker with the unsustainable loans in the House of Greed that killed the dear old Celtic Tiger – no, it was the poverty-line dweller with the benefits book in the post office that did the deed.
The Taoiseach clearly believes the country is in such a mess because child benefit quadrupled during the boom – and he is determined to punish those responsible.
Why, those nappy-wearing little spongers have worked the country over for far too long and now fully deserve what’s coming to them – a slashing of allowances and the prospect of generational mass unemployment. Yeah, that will teach them.
And their parents are going to get it in the neck too. It may have taken the fraud squad months to raid sleaze-splattered Anglo Irish Bank, but the benefit busters are going to be unleashed on the most vulnerable in society in double-quick time.
The Snip Squad has already worked out how to snatch €1.5bn from the welfare rolls – so that we can go on throwing billions more down the Anglo Irish nationalised drain.
However, as always with this Government, total confusion surrounds when An Bord Snip Nua will actually deliver its slash and burn review to the Finance Minister.
It was meant to be in Brian Lenihan’s sweaty little hacksaw hands yesterday, then it wasn’t, then reliable sources said it would be again, now it may be next week or even later.
Oh dear, has the Cabinet learned nothing from the dither and slither that has surrounded the four previous attempts to slash public spending – the only thing linking the panic measures being the sheer cack-handedness of their delivery and implementation.
Now the Taoiseach’s spokesman says no date was given for the emergence of the review. Funny then that Mr Lenihan promised it would be ready by the end of June. Oops, it’s now July – but then getting numbers right was never this administration’s strong point. Just look at the economy collapsing by a terrifying 12% in the first quarter of this year according to the CSO.
But we have to keep faith in our leaders, especially when they blame the poor for the fact we are borrowing €70m a day to stay afloat. The last person we should hold responsible for all this is the guy who was Finance Minister in the four years leading to the collapse – what was his name again?
No, let’s keep our faith in the Taoiseach’s stewardship, after all you can judge people by the company they keep and his is one of the few Governments this side of Zimbabwe to believe that raising taxes is the best way to meet economic collapse and get people to spend again.
As Eamon Gilmore wryly pointed out at Leader’s Questions, the Government is emasculating the Combat Poverty Agency not because the administration has succeeded in combating poverty, but because it needs to silence one of few bodies that can speak for the poverty stricken.
Those selfish shoe-shufflers in the burgeoning dole queues may be a drain on the country’s resources, but they are a priceless commodity when this Government wants to scapegoat the weak as its developer and banking buddies continue to be lorded with taxpayers’ cash.
