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Still Fighting Over Superbond, Even In Senate
posted (March 27, 2017)
And the Senate also had a robust debate on the Superbond. Parliament has to approve the Amendment to the terms and conditions off the bonds - and here ar multiple sides of that argument:...¦

Hon. Valerie Woods- PUP Senator
"We've bought ourselves 13 years, so the question remains and the question should stand out for everybody, particularly those that hold the power, those in the cabinet, those both elected and appointed to be there: how are we gonna use those 13 years? Because there were 9 such years that we had where we were supposed to be producing surpluses that would not have allowed us to kick this can down the road."

Hon. Michael Peyreffite
"But that's not true. Let's be very clear, if I may draw your attention Mr. President to point number 2. Let's look at just interest alone. Under the original terms, from March 20th 2013 to August 20th 2017 the government was to pay 5%. From August 20th 2017 to 2038 February 20th, the government was to pay 6.767%; that's almost 40% more interest rate alone for 21 years, you are telling me that that's not a saving?"

Hon. Mark Lizarraga- Business Senator
"And I will congratulate, I'll give the government this, and we are happy we have saved cash flow; that we have saved in fact in interest, I'll give the government that and I'm happy they renegotiated; however Mr. President, when we hear that we are going to be using the savings to do work, when we hear that we are going to renegotiate these soft, I don't know what's soft about 5 payments of $109 million dollars US plus, I don't know if those are the proper euphemisms to use and I don't know if those, the fact that we are ignoring that we have to make these payments but we've said we are going to kick the can further down the road in 2038, if that's the euphemism you want to use or we are going to pick pocket our grandchildren."

Hon. Aldo Salazar- UDP Senator
"This thing about kicking the can further down the road, I don't know if I'm the only one who is bothered by this, because that takes some gall to say, to employ a euphemism used by my 8 year old daughter, "Really?" How can you say this?

In other news from the Senate, just a few minutes ago, a division was called on the budget debate, and the government side won the vote, with 7 in favor, 6 against.  That 7 included Senator Rocke.

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