{"id":11834,"date":"2018-01-26T10:14:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T14:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=11834"},"modified":"2018-01-26T10:14:37","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T14:14:37","slug":"massiah-likens-2018-budget-to-an-act-of-illusory-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/massiah-likens-2018-budget-to-an-act-of-illusory-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Massiah likens 2018 budget to an act of illusory magic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Independent parliamentarian Joanne Massiah has likened the 2018 budget, presented in the Lower House\u00a0on Thursday<\/span><\/span>, to an act of illusory magic.<\/p>

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Massiah was giving her reaction to the $1.2b budget minutes after Prime Minister Gaston Browne made his presentation to a packed House.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I can describe as a Houdini budget. It is full of illusions, it is full of magic tricks and the people of this country, if they have never done it before, they have got to put on their analytical hats and their critical thinking skills and dissect this budget in a way a budget has never been dissected.<\/p>

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\u201cIt\u2019s clearly an election budget,\u201d she said on local radio.<\/p>

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According to her, the budget is filled with unrealistic promises, and she questioned how exactly the 5 percent increase to public servants and the other incentives outlined would be financed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase to public servants, it\u2019s done in a vacuum. He says 5 percent, 5 percent really, when you think about the recent increases to social security, when you think of \u2026 cost of living going up every single week.<\/p>

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\u201cPeople in this country are bawling [and] the 5 percent increase is going to have zero impact,\u201d Massiah opined.<\/p>\n

She added that the PM failed to address reducing the price of fuel at the pump and other \u201creal issues\u201d that affect people in a tangible way.<\/p>

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Independent parliamentarian Joanne Massiah has likened the 2018 budget, presented in the Lower House\u00a0on Thursday, to an act of illusory magic. Massiah was giving her reaction to the $1.2b budget minutes after Prime Minister Gaston Browne made his presentation to a packed House. \u201cThis is what I can describe as a Houdini budget. It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-2","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMassiah likens 2018 budget to an act of illusory magic - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/massiah-likens-2018-budget-to-an-act-of-illusory-magic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Massiah likens 2018 budget to an act of illusory magic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Independent parliamentarian Joanne Massiah has likened the 2018 budget, presented in the Lower House\u00a0on Thursday, to an act of illusory magic. Massiah was giving her reaction to the $1.2b budget minutes after Prime Minister Gaston Browne made his presentation to a packed House. \u201cThis is what I can describe as a Houdini budget. 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