Originally Posted by
Not_a_boffin
Which begs the question - which other budgets do you suggest he cuts to pay for a defence increase? We are already at the highest levels of overall taxation and government spending as a proportion of GDP for generations. The glib answer is to suggest that "the rich and/or evil US corporations" pay more. Trouble is "the richest 10%" are already paying something like 50% of total income tax (I forget the exact proportion). When you actually get away from the "sales" as opposed to profit figures quoted, the potential recoveries are actually quite low - a couple of billion here and there, that the NHS would swallow in a week or two.
Absolutely no need to cut any other budget! This wasn't done during the unprecedented and massive spending on Test and Trace, PPE, Furlough and Covid business support. Govt can very easily and quickly borrow money, and it could do it now. It is only the dogmatic Tory adherence to cutting public expenditure and insisting on efficiency and cost savings every time it alters a departmental budget that causes things such as the impending hike in National Insurance.
Dogma driven fools.