…And says there are other ways to raise revenues
We asked Espat about his party’s proposals to earn the much-needed revenue.
Mark Espat
“Unlike the prescription that has always been handed to countries like Belize, that prescription being that in times of economic downturn, you raise interest rates, you let your company fail, you cut back on spending. What we have seen in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and indeed in many of the major economies that are currently facing a downturn, is exactly the opposite. We have seen where the financial sector and companies are being pumped up with trillions of dollars in government aid. We have seen where the cost of interest rates has come down to almost zero. We have seen where investments in infrastructure and in people have actually increased. So I think those lesions should be adopted by this administration, they should know that as the economy is threatened, they have to take bold steps. They cannot follow the old recipes of the I.M.F. and what was called the Washington consensus before. That is the recipe that this U.D.P administration followed between ’93 and ’98 and I would urge them to remember the cost of those lessons.”
“The role of the opposition is to sound the alarm bells when we feel that government is making an error in judgment, an error in policy. We feel in this instance that they are making such an error. When bills are presented to the House and to the Senate, that are in the national interest and make sense to particular industries and particular areas, our party has supported those bills and that is why in this instance, because we feel that the threat to the economy, that the threat to small job, to small businesses, to consumers and borrowers is so real and present that we have taken this position. At the end of the day, the government has super majority in the House and one that we hope they will use in a responsible manner. The voters will hold them to account.”
Espat says his party has also been requesting government to give a comprehensive assessment of the recent flood damages and how the recovery plan will be funded.
