Every budget is an exercise in self-congratulation and politicking - and Osborne's March budget is no exception.
In complete denial of the dire figures produced by his own departments, he bragged about Britain's economic growth: "a major economy that is growing faster than any other in the world" - thanks to his policies, of course!
Never mind that official figures have just revealed that the economy is not anywhere as large as was announced just a few months ago!
Never mind either that, contrary to his predictions, Osborne's other hobby horses - the "deficit" and "public debt" - are still going up! If so, one can only wonder what the point was of all these years of public spending cuts. But then we all know the answer: the cuts were never meant to "save" money, but only to offer a larger share of public funds to the capitalist class and wealthy minority, at the expense of the working class majority.
And this is exactly what this year's budget is designed to do as well.
A boon for shareholders
The list of measures which favour companies and shareholders in this budget, is just too long to fit here. So, we'll just look at the most significant among them.
- The rate of corporation tax is to be cut from 20% today to 17% by 2020. This is the tax that companies are supposed to pay on their profits, but that many already manage to avoid paying in full, thanks to all sort of "tax avoidance" devices which no government has ever seriously challenged. Even then, company profits are so huge that this tax brings in over £40bn/yr. This new rate cut will amount to a handout worth around £20bn over the next 5 years, which will mostly benefit a handful of very big companies!
- The two rates of Capital Gains Tax will be cut from 28 to 20% and 18 to 10%, respectively. This will mostly benefit speculators in finance or real estate, for instance - who must pay this tax on profit they make from selling something they have bought.
- The oil and gas giants operating in the North Sea are getting yet another tax break. After the £1.3bn handout they were awarded last year, Osborne is abolishing altogether the Petroleum Revenue Tax, a tax on their super-profits which had been introduced 40 years ago!
- 630,000 businesses will pay no business rates at all from next year. This is supposed to favour small businesses. But small does not mean poor and the cost of this tax handout is quite hefty - £7bn - which could have been put to much better use in the NHS and other increasingly derelict public services. But then, small businessmen are part of the Tories' electoral heartland, aren't they!
An unacceptable price
The very fact that these billions are splashed out to feed the greed of the wealthy is already an insult, at a time when the rolling out of Duncan-Smith's Universal Credit (claimed mainly by "working poor") will result in an estimated 2 million households losing anywhere between £1,600 and £3,000 a year.
But there is worse. One third of Osborne's planned £4bn cuts target the disabled on Personal Independence Payment (PIP). 200,000 of them stand to lose almost £3,000 a year each and another 400,000 will lose over £1,400 a year. Which section of the wealthy will benefit from this additional hardship imposed on the disabled?
Of course, Osborne's budget has a chapter cynically entitled "support for working people". But what does it include? There is a cut in income tax which will be tiny for most workers and no help for the low-paid, who do not pay tax anyway. A freeze on various taxes and duties will benefit everyone, including the rich filling up their Rolls Royces or buying their 25-year old single malt Whisky.
Another measure which is supposed to "support working people", according to Osborne, is the transformation of the remaining 19,000 local authority-controlled schools into academies. Of course, contrary to what the government claims, this has nothing to do with the quality of teaching - and everything to do with delivering education on the cheap. Indeed, academy teachers are no longer covered by national bargaining and, since academies can choose the curriculum they want, they can also cut on the subjects taught.
Of course, Osborne made a point of offering a "measure" for the low-paid: a scheme called "Help to Save" which would allow them to receive a 50p bonus from the government for every 1 £ saved up to a maximum of £50/month. But since when have the low-paid been able to afford to accumulate anything but debt? About that, Osborne, the millionaire, wouldn't know!