Seventeen to twenty-one

Keynesian economics. The idea that an organisation that produces nothing, can create economic growth.

Example: We are now on a steady cruise-climb of spending $21B per year in the federal budget to pay off the debt. That makes this the 5th biggest item in the federal budget after Defence.

The government is on track to spend more than $21 billion a year on interest payments on commonwealth debt — more than it spends on public hospitals — as it puts off a budget surplus until early next decade.

A grim update to the federal budget shows that government spend­ing is growing faster than planned while tax revenue has fallen short of forecasts issued just seven months ago, widening this year’s deficit to $37.4bn and inflicting greater damage in later years.

Scaling back its ambitions, the government yesterday talked of delivering budget surpluses “as soon as possible” but abandoned a forecast by Joe Hockey in May that promised a surplus by 2019-20. Instead, small surpluses would be delivered from 2020-21.

But hey, lets just keep spending more money we don't actually have. Santa's workshop is in Canberra.
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