Few would disagree with the strategy of Kevin Rudd's government to try and spend our way out of trouble. It is a plan being followed by most other developed nations and there is at least a fair chance it will succeed.
That surplus of just about twenty-two billion dollars has been a God send. Without it we would be deep in deficit to bolster public spending - and money borrowed is something that eventually has to be paid back.
It seems inevitable that we will have to embrace a deficit to keep the money stream flowing and the big question that will worry many people is just how political the spending of that money will become.
The government is talking about funding some sort of development bank that the states can draw on to finance essential infrastructure projects. The danger is that politics will get in the act and we will see states with a Labor government rise to the top of the list in the hope that these projects will deliver public voting support - and keep Labor state governments in power.
There is also the question of what this money will finance. The last thing we need is political choices that look good to the voters because they employ people - but in reality deliver little to the benefit long term of the country.
Politicians being politicians there is every chance that re-election will take precedence over the public good.
We are facing the most dangerous financial period since 1929 and if ever fiscal management needed the right choices and an unbiased approach it is now.
When we adopt a deficit culture those making the decisions should remember that the money being borrowed to fix today's problems will become a debt that our children and grand children will have to repay.
Politicians fade to a very comfortable retirement when their time in parliament ends - but the decisions they make become a legacy for every man, woman and child in this country - and their heirs !
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