The $8billion Con Job

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

The local paper (now ranked 150th by Reporters Without Borders) made like the FY2014 budget is in deficit to the tune of $1.16b because of the $8b boondoggle for the Pioneer Generation Package (PGP). The last time Singapore ran a deficit was in 2009 at the height of the global financial meltdown, "this year the short fall is aimed at helping the needy and elderly". Let's get the facts straight.

Half of the money is expected to be expended over the next 10 years, after which the rest of the 450,000 eligible seniors (this number is also up for debate) who are still alive will be facing other challenges - higher Goods and Services Taxes (GST), train fares, utility charges, town council tariffs, etc. You were thinking perhaps $8b divided by 450,000?

Although the Finance Minister made the announcement in February, the goodies will trickle in at a snail's pace. Additional subsidies for specialist outpatient clinics (SOCs) and polyclinics kick in only in September. Subsidies for Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) at general practitioners (GPs) and dental clinics will be available only in January 2015. Subsidies for MediShield Life premiums won't be seen until late 2015, or later. Before you even know it, 2014 will be over, and a few of the qualifying seniors would have kicked the bucket, without benefiting a cent from the "move which honours generation who built nation". There are no subsidies for burial or cremation expenses.

Bottomline, nobody will ever know how much of the promise will be delivered. What will definitely be expended in 2014 are these boondoggles:
$12.6b for Defence (up 3.2%)
$6.2b for Transport (up 3.8%)*
$4.2b for Home Affairs (up 8.4%)
$0.5b for Prime Minister's Office (up 18.5%)
$0.5b for Organs Of State (up 18.2%)
* on top of the many increases planned in collaboration with the Public Transport Council (PTC)

Economists said that the $1.16b represents a relatively small budget deficit, easily recoverable by tweaking, say the collectible $10.1b GST (up 6.1%), which is payable by all, young or old, infirmed or healthy, unemployed or salaried.

Khaw Boon Wan is obviously the wrong guy to "definitely debunk the perception that health care is unaffordable". They use to say that economic growth has priority over democracy because you can't eat democracy. Guess what? You can't eat subsidies either. Because of the co-payment element of the healthcare system, you can't afford to see a doctor without cash in your wallet, even though there's still money sitting pretty in your MediSave account.

- http://singaporedesk.blogspot.sg/201...b-con-job.html


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