For decades our corrupt governments have only been interested in helping equally corrupt foreign investors capitalize on our tourism product, and to hell with the Bahamian people. Each general election our corrupt political parties promise it will be the people's time but the people's time never comes.

Since May 2017 Bahamians and Bahamian businesses have been taxed to death, quite literally in many instances. Businesses have been closing their doors in record numbers leaving our true unemployment rate well above 20%.

As a direct consequence of the very misdirected and/or failed social and economic policies of the corrupt political ruling class, most Bahamian families today are unable to afford the five essentials for a civilized life: (1) a house or apartment with electricity and running water, (2) healthy food, (3) healthcare including medicines, (4) transportation, and (5) school fees, school supplies, and school uniforms for their children.

Another ten-years of corrupt governments may well be the death knell for most of Bahamian society. All but the political elite and their wealthy cronies would have by then succumbed to the perils of dire poverty with anarchy being the only option for possible change and survival. At that point though, we would have become a failed state that the U.S. and Communist China will bicker over for their own self interest; mainly national security reasons in the case of the U.S.

As a people, Bahamians will have become marginalized and sidelined forever more, much like the Haitians are in their own country today. Truly sad that the current government is about as corrupt as they come and therefore offers absolutely no hope whatsoever of a better tomorrow for anyone but themselves and their cronies.

They've spent money they don't have. But many of them hold the view that if the lending institutions and credit card issuers were foolish enough to extend them the credit, then they fully deserve the credit losses that will come their way in the New Year .

It is now well established that government will say anything to try make itself look good. Nothing but a bunch of bald faced liars of the highest order.

The vast majority of Bahamians are feeling terrible financial pain on all fronts of the kind they have never before experienced; yet our corrupt government would have them believe they should be thankful for all of the prosperity they enjoy.

They are not stupid people. The corrupt political ruling class and their cronies are criminals, period.

They are obviously at the front of the line for many more government contracts.

Decade after decade of the same 'ole broken promises. That's the PLP's way of doing the people's business. All talk and no action other than the wrongful self-enriching kinds of action.

> Laroda said: "....options include cutting back on costs or raising revenue or doing both."

The corrupt political ruling class will never cut costs by laying off any of the nonproductive staff at NIB which has one of the most costly and grossly over-bloated payrolls of any government run enterprise in our nation. They will instead significantly reduce the level of benefits paid to retirees while greatly increasing the level of contributions required from employers and employees. Then they will be in a position to have NIB hire even more of their loyal supporters.

Make no mistake about it, the corrupt political ruling class has for decades violated their sacred fiduciary duty and responsibility to ensure NIB prudently invested the contributions taken from honest and hardworking employers and employees.

Bottom line: Past and present members of the corrupt political ruling class have effectively bankrupted NIB by allowing waste, fraud and corruption to bleed NIB dry as a means of buying votes and unjustly enriching themselves and their cronies. And they now want to take even more of our hard earned money to refill the empty coffers of the bankrupt corpse of NIB so that they can fritter away even more of the people's life blood. Truly pathetic by every measure of cruelty.

Minnis won't be saying anything about Red China, illegal aliens or reducing our over-sized civil workforce. Instead he's guaranteed to babble on about a lot of planned construction projects and other government spending. He certainly won't say anything about the planned significant increase in national insurance contribution amounts or the planned increase in VAT to 15%.

KP Turnquest speaks with a forked tongue out of both sides of his mouth.

You're absolutely right about the $450 million if you count:

1) National Insurance Board cash invested in BoB as additional capital to support BoB's losses on fraudulent lending activity involving PLP and FNM politicians and their cronies;

2) Taxpayer (Government) guarantees and cash injections plowed into BoB by way of Bahamas Resolve for the same reason noted in 1) above; and

3) Dividend payments made on a gratis basis by Taxpayers (Government) to BoB's preferred shareholders because of BoB's insolvency.