And while talking about the budget consultations, DPM Hyde noted the dire state that the economy is in. And, like his PM, he fingered the UDP as being the ones to blame.
But just yesterday, Senator Michael Peyrefitte claimed that, contrary to what the PUP says, the government is not broke. In fact, he said that they inherited a, quote, "healthy economy."
When we asked the DPM about those comments, he said the Senator Peyrefitte must be joking.
Hon. Cordel Hyde - Deputy Prime Minister "You know Michael Peyrefitte is a very funny guy right, I think he was joking, he had to be joking because everybody and their granny know how bad things are in this country, must have been healthy for them but not healthy for the vast majority of people out here, try tell that to the 146 thousand people in this country who are either unemployed or underemployed. We promised the Belizean people jobs, we promising them housing, we promise them education opportunities, NHI, we have not been able to do any of that. I can tell you I have no hired a single one of my constituency, I have not hired not a single one of my campaigners, that is how tough things are in this country right now. All the monies that we get, have to go to helping our constituency with the basics, with all their basic needs, it's just not enough. They spent the last year just driving this country into the ground, borrowed 30 million dollars just to pay salaries. As the prime minister one said, it's like if you are making 500 dollars a week and you have to borrow 250 dollars every week on top of that just to pay your bills but it was elections, so they was a splurge, lot of monies spent on all kind of stuff but ultimately now we have to pay the bills."
We'll have more from our interview with the DPM later on in the news.
