Creating the strategic deficit

Just Left has a pair of good posts up in response to National's tax cuts. The first costs those cuts at $11.5 billion - about $2 billion more than they said on Friday. The second points out that that $11.5 billion would eat the projected surplus entirely, meaning that there would either have to be a massive increase in borrowing (and I mean massive; currently we're scheduled to borrow a mere $1 billion over the next three years), or savage cuts in spending on core public services. Given that Brash is a dedicated Revolutionary in the same spirit as Douglas and Richardson, I'm picking the latter. The massive tax-cuts will be used to create a "strategic deficit", which will then be used to justify a further attack on the public services needed by the poor. And meanwhile, Brash and his rich friends will laugh all the way to the bank...