Standard and Poors rating upgrade

To everyone bristling over SP saying we need more taxes: Relax.

They said that not as a commandment but merely a statement of opinion. They have standards as to the economic characteristics of an investment grade borrower. They think one way we could meet the standard is to raise taxes and increase the tax base.

We definitely need to improve our tax effort. We know why but the political will is not there. I think it would be more productive to focus on this aspect despite the difficulty. The poor collection performance is a disorder in the system. I'd rather have order there than have new taxes. It's like putting more gas into an engine that needs a tune up. It would be better if the engine were maintained than to keep wasting gas.

CC: Economy Update 1

I started checking on point one: the economy grew over 10 years. Apparently, the figures being referenced were GDP figures. I started to dig and wrote down GDP for Erap, P-noy and GMA. There definitely was a big improvement during GMA's term.

The main question is, where did the economic growth come from? At first I suspected OFW Remittances and Business Process Outsourcing. In pursuit of more data I visited the NSCB site. This is what greeted me:

I almost fell of my chair. P-noy's economic performance is being hampered because he's not spending as much as the previous administration. I'll dispense with the economic debate over pump priming, Keynesian vs monetarist and what not. Here's the point. Government services is recorded when the funds are spent. P-noy is spending less than Gloria. Gloria disbursed more funds out of the national coffers.

Now, how effective was that spending?

Right. I don't know either.

What I do know is that P-noy is cutting cots by using a zero budgeting program. Redundant and ineffective projects are being denied funds. We can suspect there's politics involved, that P-noy is punishing his political adversaries, but that just makes the follow-up question all the more pointed. Does it mean he is spending less on his political allies than Gloria?

So even if GDP did grow, so long as it came from government spending we will always ask if the money was used wisely. The next step would be a check on all the projects done during GMA's term. Did those projects push through and were there any snags? I think I have to leave that path for now maybe until I get my broad answers for the rest of the points.

note: I'm using the acronym CC: Economy for this challenge. Here's my first post for the Citizen's Challenge: Economy