Joe Hockey warns Burnham debt binge will end in tears

Former Treasurer Joe Hockey has warned of a global economic disaster as Andy Burnham is set to cost taxpayers hundreds of billions. Speaking to GB News host Will Kingston, Mr Hockey said governments that win power on unaffordable promises then refuse to rein in spending leave ordinary people facing the bill.

Mr Hockey recalled how his own side won office in 2013 after making commitments they could not fund. Shortly afterwards they began significant cutbacks in welfare and health and a range of other areas. The measures proved unpopular. They got a large amount through parliament yet lost their jobs because voters turned against them.

At the same time he chaired the G20. Finance ministers and central bank governors all said the same thing after the global financial crisis: stop spending so much money. They did not do it. Covid then accelerated the outlays. Governments spent still more and could not pull back on the emergency expenditure once the crisis passed.

That pattern, he argued, now risks a far wider reckoning. It will end in tears. People individually need to live within their means and prepare themselves for what will be a pretty wild time on global financial markets. The warning lands as fresh political promises pile fresh liabilities onto already stretched public finances.

Mr Hockey’s account is blunt. Easy pledges win elections. Hard restraint loses them. The bill still arrives. Taxpayers who never asked for the extra hundreds of billions will carry the cost when markets finally force the correction that politicians postponed.

Original source: GB News