Who gave the instruction for this person to come back on staff?

How ironic that this was Fred Mitchell's exact headline announcement when he became Minister of Immigration.

He brings his last name and the sense of entitlement that family has to FNM spoils, that's essentially what he brings. And you're right; so far, the rhetoric is the same ole same ole.

As soon as successive governments get in, their favorite word becomes "borrow". While some borrowing would inevitably take place, it is also the easy and lazy way out of governance in many cases.

> Mr Turnquest, meanwhile, warned against reading too much into the Speech from the Throne’s failure to refer specifically to a Fiscal Responsibility Act....“I was surprised when it wasn’t mentioned specifically, but we are committed to our campaign promises,” Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business of a Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Somebody stop him!! Does Turnquest realize what he is saying? Either he is being willfully deceptive or he is leaking that the Cabinet in which he sits as Finance Minister, never voted to approve its own legislative agenda laid out in the Speech from the Throne.

Right. Why didn't the FNM analyze the budget they voted yes to in 2016, to identify the fat that they would go after for the 2017 budget? It is called preparation. You would lessen your projected deficit for 2017 by cutting unnecessary spending, assuming your campaign promises you plan to fulfill this time around don't blow the revenue budget out beyond reach. Again, it seems the priority was moreso making segments of persons happy as opposed to demonstrating a commitment very early on to putting our financial house in order.

The new government is going down the same path as always, which is to ignore the obvious in order to suit what they believe to be popular sentiment.

> The Minister of Finance has pledged to hold spending “in line with the previous year as much as we can” in Wednesday’s Budget, with any overshooting caused by the Christie administration’s spending commitments.

Is Turnquest serious? The multiplied millions in the current budget for spending on election padding, excessive hires, and scandalous fat in the 2016 budget that was approved will be held? Ongoing standard expenditure is one thing, but this current budget is rife with heinous overspending allocations, and Turnquest seems to be saying that this spending allocations might not only be duplicated, but exceeded. This is madness. Surely the fat could have and should have been cut. If you are going to borrow to meet shortfalls, why might you also be seeking to spend potentially more on top of that?

Those will continue to be approved no doubt.

And every year or every other year this same loan is issued. What changes with the skill set of our workforce? Nothing. The IDB is making a killing off member countries with these loans year after year.