Fat cats are the real winners

DURING his so-called address to the nation, Enda Kenny said: “To make sure we keep as many jobs as we can, to make sure you get to bring home as much as you can, and to make sure you know where you stand with your wages.

To give you some certainty for the year ahead, we’re leaving income tax untouched.”

What sort of rubbish is this? How stupid does he think people are? Apart from having no mandate for policies that were already rejected by the electorate, his statement conveys faulty assumptions: that income taxes will reduce jobs, that cuts are not taxes on somebody, that cuts instead of taxes can save jobs and that his €2.2 billion in cuts and €1.6bn in taxes provide us with greater certainty, letting us know where we stand, by excluding income tax — the clearest, most obvious, form of taxation there is. Taxes can be targeted, and the money raised can be invested in creating jobs. If €3.8bn is taken out of the economy, no matter what way it’s done: by cuts, by taxes or a mixture of both, as in this case, then that €3.8bn is being taken from somebody. The only questions are: Who is it taken from? Who loses and who wins?