“Lloyd: I would rather lose election than lose my country” – The Nassau Guardian
Excerpt from this article; “Defending the government’s 2018/2019 budget yesterday, Minister of Education Jeffery Lloyd said he would be satisfied losing the next election if it means ‘rescuing’ The Bahamas from economic disaster.
Lloyd said he supports the budget even though it is ‘uncomfortable in some of its terms’.
‘The unpalatable, unpardonable, unvarnished truth is simply this, we have maxxed out our credit card’, Lloyd said during the budget debate.
‘We have not a single cent to spare.’
‘The country is sitting at a precarious state of disaster … [and] we are over that precipice from which there is no return. As the DPM said yesterday, we are one disaster away from disaster.”
“I would rather loser the next election, if it means ‘rescuing’ The Bahamas from economic disaster” a powerful statement and isn’t that what this budget and 4.5 point increase in Value-added Tax (VAT) is really about?

No one said that the road to correct the wrongs which we have been ignoring for far too long was going to be easy but we all sat back and asked for ‘someone’ to do ‘something’ and when someone listened and is courageous enough to do something, we then complain about what is being proposed – WHY?!
Because it is not the ‘’something’ that we had in mind?
Actually what did we have in mind?
The Truth of the budget is while the rate on Vat has increased, in the long term [this is long term planning] there will be a reduction in custom duties and excise taxes; so there is a plan to attempt to strike a balance in this budget, bring government spending and borrowing under control, putting the country’s finances in a much better position than they are today and how they were met a year ago, while at the same time attempting to strike a balance – this cannot be disputed – only by those that have no idea of what has/is being proposed and/or by those wishing to gain political mileage going into the next general election, let me address that.
“You can’t threaten me”
The opposition has shown great support for the people at his time but showed very little support when they implemented VAT. They now say, that it [VAT] was already on the books when they took office 2012 and I ask if they saw it has being something that would hurt rather than help, then why implement it? Then there was the issue/question of the money collected from this tax and where it was going; while it may have been going into the consolidated fund, as per the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), how much was actually going to pay the country’s bills, as we have such a massive amount of unpaided and past due bills?
Let me be clear, this situation did not begin with the former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration but it was that administrating that first promised, as it implemented VAT to take care of the country’s financial affairs but only failed the people by actually producing four economic downgrades and had the country a heartbeat away from junk status or did we actually achieve this accomplishment under their watch?
So, if any of them claim to NOW have the answers, they should be turned away like the deceitful, hypocrites that they have proven themselves to be.
I will end this with the words of Mark Humes, Free National Movement (FNM) Member of Parliament for Fort Charlotte; “I don’t take any pleasure in supporting this budget but it is a necessary action for our past actions.
Indeed, this not a time of delight for any of us but some of us do see the bigger picture and long term goals; which are necessary and which must be taken.
Some may ask why now and I ask why if not now then when?
END