1. Not going to bother checking the budget papers yet again but the last time the ALP showed a budget surplus was a few years before Keating got thrown out.
2. There's no use comparing things pre and post GFC. Its an unlevel playing field to even try. Everyone loaded up on debt during GFC... everyone.
3. Have you done a costing of dealing with unemployment and its multiplier effect on the economy had we not done the GFC stimulus thingy???
4. Housing market. Rudd didnt start the housing bubble... and he couldnt very well prick that bubble cuz the wealth effect is what kept people consuming.
5. Surveys of people undertaken pre Rudd indicated most werent better off. Cost of living was higher during the Howard years than now.
6. The Howard years from 2000 were a bubble in all asset classes.... no wonder Govt coffers were over-flowing. That provided an artificial expectation by the plebs. Mark my words Swanny/Abbott/Hockey aint gunna get us back there unless we have another silly bubble of epic proportions.
