Actually, it should be for the middle-income earners.

Those above 45k pa do not need lower income tax rates. Cutting the highest income tax rate to 25% was the stupidest idea ever.

What the government should have done is introduce more brackets or raise the bar for the 35% rate, AND increased the top rate.

We need to “incentivise” (jaqq clunky English) our millionaires to invest their huge profits in their own corporations, not to hoard it for themselves. Bad move, PN. Bad fucking move.

And you know what, it won’t earn them any votes from the Okella Agius social leeches on the minimum wage.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If the government were truly responsible it would have come up with a ‘slender’ budget to keep the country going and not an electoral manifesto which it knew, since August, had no chance in hell to be approved.

Believe it or not I am a Nationalist voter (although you will laugh it off) but this clinging on to power knowing you do not have a clear majority in parliament for months, taking the longest parliament summer break in history and coming up with a budget on the eve of the Christmas holidays is truly irresponsible and obsession with hanging on to power.

This will undoubtedly be reflected in the public judgement when we come to vote next year. And just for the record – I still think the PN is the better option for the country but the last year has been dismal.

[Daphne – SAUCE. What’s SAUCE for the goose, not ‘good’. It means that any sauce which is suitable for a goose (female) is also suitable for a gander (male). In both these instances, the birds are cooked.]

You conveniently forget it to be part of the electoral programme, rendering it mandatory.

So insipid, all I have to do is look up one of your comments to the contrary.

Then there’s the dogmatic, exclusive, attitude to government, proving how ridiculous Joseph is when he implies business as usual. Fake.

They are also lazy hence they piggyback on the government’s budget and harp about social benefits without job creation, leaving the high earners to pay for the brainwashed. It’s a dead end. How can they be a change?

Joseph Muscat promised he would adopt any budget measures that are deemed to be good.

Is this an honest promise or is this promise similar to the one made in the eighties that Labour government would not rule without the majority? Later that promise was explained as meaning the majority of parliamentary seats.

Could this new promise mean that Labour would adopt what looks good for the individual (meaning giveaways) or the taxes introduced to finance this budget and felt to be good for the country?

I hope new labour finds the courage to explain which budget measures would be adopted if Labour is returned to office.

Excellent points. However, ‘shallow’ does not adequately describe little Joey’s potential for harm. ‘Unscrupulous’ would be a better description, in my opinion.

The social objective should be for the minimum wage earners first and not for those in the 60,000 bracket.

Once again goverment looked after it s own.

Please Daphne don t bother to call me a laburista agian as it s getting rather stale

I

Basically, the way Joseph Muscat will reduce taxes is to keep everyone on the minimum wage, and to freeze it below the income tax brackets.