What you need to look at is how much they get in receipts and how much they spend.
The 2011-12 receipts were $330B and expenditure was $371B. With an underlying cash balance of - $44B.
The final year of Howard had receipts at $294B expenditure at $271B and cash balance of $19B.
So under this Government the amount (including taxes) that the Government received is $36B more or bit over 12% more than Howard's last year.
Expenditure is $100B more or 37% more!
The last four years of Howard saw surpluses of $13B, $15B, $17B and $19B. The last four years of Rudd/Gillard has seen deficits of $27B, $54B, $47B and $44B.
Our net financial worth has gone from -$18B from Howard's last year to -$251B. As a percentage of GDP we have gone from -1.5% to -17%. Quite a dramatic rise in debt.
And yes you will probably go but that is really low compared to other countries and I would retort with Ireland! Before Ireland had to bail out its banks it had a debt ration around 25%. Straight after the bailouts it hit 95%.
The figures speak for themselves. This government is bringing in more money than the Howard Government ($36B more) but it cannot go close to providing a surplus because it is spending $100B more a year than the last year of the Howard Government.
