I waited the official response from the opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and finally got it and they did not disappoint, as the Leader of the Opposition Philip ‘Brave’ Davis seeming to have lost all connection with reality, displayed his and his party’s grand sense of delusion.

“Austerity could trigger recession’ – ‘PLP cautions govt. after PM’s address” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Insisting that the first national address by Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis shows the government has no economic growth plan for the country, Opposition Leader Philip ‘Brave’ Davis charged yesterday that  the absence of such a plan with austerity measures announced by Minnis ‘will trigger a double-dip recession.’

During his address, televised on Wednesday night, Minnis announced the government will cut the expenditure of its various ministries by 10 percent, institute a hiring freeze and not renew contracts for emoluments that exceed $100,000 a year.

Minnis also announced that the government will reduce the number of government-owned vehicles and appoint a special committee to advise on state-owned enterprises, with a view to reducing the burden on public finances.

In a statement to the press, Davis said the address underscored that ‘the FNM has no vision, no plan and no ideas for the future and sustained growth and development into a united, resilient and strong Bahamas.”

This statement by Mr. Davis is indeed a very troubling one, as he wishes to accuse the Free National Movement of not having any ideas to move the country forward, economically, while his governing Progressive Liberal Party, from 2007 to 2012, move the country downward, producing four economic downgrades in their five year reign and left many to question to this day where has all the money gone that was borrowed during their stay in power; it is clear that the Mr. Philip ‘Brave’ Dais and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) have no clue on how to handle the economy.  They had no clue for five years on how to cut government spending; they had no clue on economic stimulation and indeed no clue on job creation and I dare say that IF the Progressive Liberal Party had actually produced the 10,000 jobs as promised that that they claimed to have produced, then the country may not be at this point.

One point which Mr. Davis refuses to address is the simple economic fact that you cannot tax a nation into to prosperity, yet during very ‘dark’ economic times and without the necessary cutbacks his government introduced Value-Added Tax (VAT), they then went on to claim that VAT was exceeding all expectations but yet were unable to give the country a plausible accounting as to where this money was going, as our nation’s national debt and deficit continued to rise to dangerous levels.

It is clear that in his zeal to criticize Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis and the Free National Movement (FNM), that Mr. Davis missed some key points of the prime ministers national address; the first being the necessary cutbacks which will not only reduce our need to borrow but also make the country look more appealing and stable to investors, along with these cost cutting measures was the commitment to aggressively address crime; which also  has been affecting the country’s image to the world.

Mr. Davis instead deflects from these key and salient issues by asserting’ “Further, how will Bahamians, ordinarily absorbed into the public service be otherwise employed?”  Here, Mr. Davis clearly articulates that his government’s job creation plan was the public sector and this is not realistic, the county cannot afford an over bloated public sector.

Yes, there is a need for job creation but it cannot be the public sector and one wonders what happened to the job creating initiatives that brought about companies such as Bahamas Stripping?  Mr. Davis is being very dishonest with the people of the Bahamas to suggest that the present government does not have a plan to move the country forward and to suggest that the present cost cutting measures MAY lead to a recession when he and his government in five years did very little to improve the country’s economic status and to stimulate the job market or even to try to make the country look appealing to the outside investor.

The Progressive Liberal Party continues fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END