One Bermuda Alliance backbencher Mark Pettingill likened the Opposition’s Reply to the Budget to a children’s television show, while the Opposition deemed Government’s policy uncaring and overly reliant on taxation.

“Our philosophies are clearly different,” Mr Pettingill told Members of Parliament after the delivery of the Reply by David Burt, Shadow Minister of Finance.

“The Opposition wants the Government to invest, and the OBA want foreign people to invest — and there, right away, we draw the dichotomy.”

Siding firmly with the debt-cutting measures proposed by Bob Richards, the Finance Minister, Mr Pettingill declared that the previous administration had neglected to take heed of warnings over its economic policies.

“When Government invests in capital projects, you drain the kitty,” he said.

“We can’t be in a position again where the Government invests in very expensive capital projects using the people’s money. Deficit and debt are killing us right now.”

Mr Pettingill added that the Reply had contained “cutting and pasting from the last three years” — a point that David Burt, the Shadow Minister of Finance did not object to. “Blue Economy” initiatives are not affordable, Mr Pettingill continued, adding that seeking offshore mineral reserves was impossible without substantial money or investment.

He said that the existing Government was getting on with serious business. “It is not Sesame Street and we can’t lead the economy according to Ernie and Burt,” he closed.

Mr Pettingill’s comeback was cut short after a half-hour by Speaker of the House Randy Horton over protestations that the OBA allotment should have been an hour.

Wayne Furbert, of the Progressive Labour Party, rose to accuse the Government of neglecting the people’s interests with initiatives such as payroll tax increases, while companies enjoyed tax concessions.

“I’m talking about a Government who said they were going to make things better,” Mr Furbert said, adding that unemployment and debt were at the highest ever recorded while more taxes were being added. Mr Furbert said Government promises had failed to materialise on giving 20 per cent of capital works to small businesses, as well as reducing health costs and opening a clinic to cater to the vulnerable.

Wayne Scott, Education Minister, responded that the Shadow Minister of Finance’s “Burt math” was wrong.

Pointing to Mr Richards’ Budget assertion that projects of around $930 million would boost the economy over the next three years, he questioned the Opposition charge that Government’s Budget lacked new revenue-building ideas for the Island.

“Just under a billion’s worth of no ideas — I will take that any day,” Mr Scott told the House. “And the vast majority of that is without using our credit card.”

Walton Brown, Shadow Minister of Immigration and External Affairs, said the debate had skirted a real discussion of the Opposition’s ideas.

Pointed to an unprecedented level of unemployment, Mr Brown said Bermuda’s legislators needed to get real when it came to powerful overseas countries that viewed the Island as a tax haven, and said that with amalgamations ongoing in the international business sector, “job cuts are going to continue”.

He then suggested that The Royal Gazette had deliberately chosen not to report a recent redundancy of 38 senior executives in a reinsurance company that he declined to name.

Mr Brown also rubbished arguments that the Island’s economy could be jump-started by population growth.