by god - check this out!, page-8

cgt2009

You posted;
"Once spending programs (especially middle class welfare and tax breaks) are entrenched, its usually political suicide to reverse. ..."

Exactly! But there's more; much more!

Under John Howard Australia developed its biggest housing bubble in our history while private indebtedness rose to ~160% of annual disposable income - still rising to record levels as he was given the boot in 2007.

Peter Costello smirked as he bequeathed his economic tsunami to Kevin Rudd; knowing that he had locked up $50b in the Future Fund [that invested it almost all overseas].

Yet some posters on this forum still deny that Kevin Rudd's Govt. saved Australia from the excesses of the GFC and its enduring aftermath.

The full report can be downloaded from:

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=40222.0