Budget 2013- Summary of all spending plans

Craig,

Thanks for posting all this data.

I note your summary line:

Not all the difference between tax collected and expenditure needs to be borrowed.

The following link debunks the idea that it all must be borrowed; or at least notes that it can be borrowed from yourself as the government.

http://www.mediaroots.org/can-the-usa-really-run-out-of-dollars/

So we should absolutely look at each budget line, and decide whether that is an efficient and sensible use of the country's resources. But balancing isn't necessarily the first priority.

The paper points out an economic truism that a government deficit must equal a private surplus, minus the leakage offshore in the current account.

This equation tells us that in New Zealand, if we have a fiscal deficit of roughly $12 billion; and a current account deficit also of roughly $12billion, the private balance must be about zero. If we reduce the government deficit to zero, while leaving the current account at negative $12 billion, then privately there has to be dissaving of $12 billion.

If we are serious about deficits as a country, then, the one to go after is the current account. All of the current National government settings are about increasing the current account deficit. It's the single biggest reason they need to change. 

The paper has the following quote:

“Mark Twain said, ‘It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just aint so.’

I actually quite like Bill English. But he "knows stuff that just ain't so". And that's getting us all into lots of trouble.