A Robin Hood budget? Hardly

Some temptations are so great, according to a British wit, that it is actually sinful not to give into them.

And a sub-editor’s caprice, in predicting today that the Rudd government  is planning a Robin Hood budget, certainly  comes into that class.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s reporter, Phillip Coorey,  did have a genuine budget break.

He persuaded the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, to confess that the government is planning to close what Swan called a “loophole” that presently permits some tax minimisation on share options.

And that will hit the wealthy, very lightly.

The total amount involved is small.  Barely $80 million a year, at best.  But Swan’s assertion, that a loophole exists, is certainly arguable.

Moving from that premise, though, to asserting that the government is planning to rob the rich, to help the poor, is, undoubtedly, one giant step,  for that  newspaper.

The SMH is on firmer ground, though, in saying that the government plans to look after workers, in this year’s budget.

Mr Swan, himself, confirmed that in a radio interview this morning.

“This will be the first time they have received a fair go, by way of tax cuts,”  Swan said, like a good Labor man.

That could hardly have been avoided.

Labor promised $31 billion worth of staged tax cuts, before last year’s election, almost matching a promise the coalition had made.

The first tranche of those tax cuts will be due – and paid – in this year’s budget.

For a while there, with inflation hitting a new peak, that looked distinctly like a bad idea.

But like a good sheriff, in an old Western movie, the US rode up at just the right time, with a slowing economy.

That made the proposed tax cuts – more or less – respectable again.