DPM Hyde Counters Opposition’s Two‑Hour Broadside

Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde didn’t hold back either, as he fired back at the Opposition Leader’s nearly two‑hour takedown in the House. He argued that for all her criticism, she left out what he says is a key point, this government hasn’t raised a single tax in its five years in office. Hyde reminded Belizeans what the administration walked into in November 2020, one of the worst debt‑to‑GDP ratios in the country’s history and IMF recommendations that included firing thousands of public officers and hiking GST to nineteen percent. He said those were harsh measures the Briceño government flatly rejected, choosing instead to steady the economy without adding new burdens on Belizean families.

 

Cordel Hyde, Deputy Prime Minister

“The leader of the opposition spoke for almost two hours, and she spoke about just everything under the sun. And I have been here a very long time and I have never seen a leader of the opposition speak that long. The leader of the opposition had a lot to say, but what she did not say, what she did not mention is that we have not raised tax in any of the last five years, absolutely no taxes, even though when we came into this honorable house as the government back in November of 2020, the debt to GDP ration for this country was the sixth worst in all the world. It was a hundred and thirty-five percent. I could remember when the FinSec briefed us at the Biltmore for our first Cabinet meeting, I almost fell off my chair. We did not know it was that bad. We were borrowing almost a million dollars a year just to pay salaries for teachers and public officers. The IMF was recommending we fire three thousand teachers and public officers and raise GST to nineteen percent. That was way back in 2020. We have not raised GST, not the seven percent, not six, not five, not four, not three, not two, not one, not even half a percent.”

 

By reframing the debate around what didn’t happen, tax hikes, mass firings, IMF austerity, Hyde shifted the spotlight onto the administration’s restraint rather than the Opposition’s criticisms.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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