Don’t blame me, blame the States
Howard loves to take credit when things go his way - be it a slight dip in unemployment rates, a strong economy at a time when economies prosper around the world or the interest rates, when they are low. While most of us may think that taking credit for something means you need to accept responsibility for that very thing when there is a problem, such responsibility is clearly not to Howard's liking. The PM wants to be praised for successes, but not blamed for failures.
Therefore, while the PM advertised low interest rates as one of his crowning achievements (too bad they didn't lead to an improvement in housing affordability), he has consistently refused to take responsibility for interest rate rises (4 rises since the last election, eight during the period of Howard rule), claiming that he had no control over the decisions of the Reserve Bank. This might beg the question of how he can claim credit for something he says he can't control, but let's not worry about that right now.
This is an election year and pointing the finger at the Labor party governed States is obviously far more attractive than bleating about not controlling the Reserve Bank. So the Howard government is now blaming State debt for putting pressure on interest rates. Commonwealth and States pointing fingers at each other is nothing new, but it is curious that Howard chose to attack States for spending too much at the same time as blaming Tasmania for not funding certain services at the Mersey hospital, intervening with a $45 million "rescue" package (and advertising his plan on no less than four full newspaper pages).
Well, its good to know that the expected fifth interest rate rise since the last election can be blamed on the Labor governments of the States and has nothing to do with the shameless government pork barrelling, that even has Costello concerned. And here I was getting worried too.
Thanks for reading and have a good weekend :-)
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