Cordel says Underprivileged Won’t Benefit from Budget

Cordel Hyde

Hyde claimed that for all the rhetoric surrounding its presentation, and for all the money this government says it has spent, that money hasn’t reached the people who need it the most.

Cordel Hyde, Area Representative, Lake I

“Life for the elites and the chosen few has been so much better, while life for the poor has been so much worse. That’s not the grand bargain the people struck with the U.D.P. and the problem is there is no solution to buyer’s remorse in this case. When you buy a pack bread and you reach home and you discover it is not good, you can take it back and get back your money. If you go to Courts and buy a TV and you get home and it doesn’t work, you could take it back and get back your money. But when you elect a government that tells you they are swimming in money and the best is yet to come and then you discover after the elections that they are all broke and it is only the worst that is yet to come. What are you to do? There’s not much you can do except to get n your hands and knees and pray. And yet I am hopeful Mister Speaker; inspired by how much we have in common as a people and how little we differ. I’ve see that we as Mestizos and a Mayas and as Garifunas and as Creoles want the same thing.  We want our children to go to school and we want a decent job and a safe home. We want our governments to stop being corrupt and we want to have a shot at better, no matter the village or the district town from which we hail. I believe we can do better; I believe we must do better. Despite the trials and tribulations, I still see hope. I see it in the faces of our people all over the length and breadth of this country. We are a small country, but we have a big heart. We are unflappable, undaunted by the challenges; we are optimistic and confident to the core and that makes me very hopeful about our future. Mister Speaker, the budget estimate for 2016/2017 falls way short of the glory; it does so little for the least of our brethren and sistren in our midst.  I cannot, in good conscience, support this budget.”

We’ll have much more on the budget later in this newscast.