Need to increase taxes because need to spend more, but never tell you how much revenues and surpluses have increased, relative to expenditure?

I refer to the article :Spending on seniors will go up in upcoming Budget: Indranee Rajah” (Straits Times, Jan 25).

It states that “Spending on services for the elderly will go up in the upcoming Budget, Senior Minister of State for Finance Indranee Rajah disclosed on Thursday (Jan 25), adding the Government does have to “look at the question of raising taxes”.”

Such a long treatise and so many recent hints of the need to raise taxes because we need to spend more.

But hardly any mention of how much revenues and surpluses have increased over the years, relative to expenditure?

As an analogy – imagine your father telling you that you have to pay more towards the increasing household expenses, but never tell you how much the household’s total incomes have been increasing, relative to expenses, and also how much savings of the excess incomes have been hoarded over the years.

Leong Sze Hian