Monday, August 08, 2005



What's good for General Motors is good for the country

Via Just Left: this week's Listener has an interview with Don Brash in which he shoots himself in the foot repeatedly on the foreign policy and the anti-nuclear issue, tries evading the issue again on Iraq, and shows himself to be completely out of touch with ordinary New Zealanders on wage and cost-of-living issues. But the best bit is this:

At your income, you would stand to earn more from across the board tax cuts than 95 percent of the New Zealand public. Do you feel at all embarrassed about that?

Ah, yep, I do. Frankly. The question, though, is not my embarrassment. The question is: what is in the interests of the country? ... I can't let my personal embarrassment block a policy if that policy is of benefit to the country. And you can make your judgment about whether it is good for the country when you see the tax package.

There's an old misquote which sums this attitude up perfectly: "What's good for General Motors is good for the country"... Meanwhile, I think the rest of us, who will pay the price of the nakedly self-interested policies Brash is advocating, should treat them with the contempt they deserve.

3 comments:

I saw Brash giving an interview on Maori TV tonight, and he did a fairly good job of defending the indefensible except that at the end it was still.. well, indefensible.
He tried all that weasel stuff about freeing people from welfare dependancy etc. which was interesting when compared to next chap that they interviewed who said much the same things. The next chap was from Destiny.
All a sad counterpoint to the John Campbell interview with Lange, love him or loathe him he seems to genuinely care about the battlers.

Posted by Anonymous : 8/08/2005 09:22:00 PM

You've got it wrong. Helen rides in a Ford, not a Holden. And a bloody fast one at that. "What's fast for Ford is good for the country" has a nice ring about it. C'mon the Westies.

This public announcement courtesy of the campaign for Gilmour for President.

Posted by Anonymous : 8/08/2005 10:14:00 PM

Brash does think low taxes are good for everyone - the risk is not that he is dishonest and self interested it is that he is self jsutifying a position that was origionally baised on self interest.
very few people can sort tht sort of thing out least of all politicians.

Posted by Genius : 8/09/2005 07:33:00 AM