National Security Minister Marvin Dames fired back at The Opposition’s scathing criticisms of the 2019/2020 budget this afternoon accusing them of appealing to the elite in the country and taxing the poor people. 

In his address last week Opposition Spokesman on Finance Chester Cooper noted as much adding that this is a budget of special interest. 

Mr. Dames said that the shelf life of these political talking points have long passed and there is no place for this kind of rhetoric in a modern Bahamas. 

He said, “they continue to say that they are the government of the poor, yet they have done nothing to raise Bahamians out of poverty. Fact be told, when you look around at many of them who have been at the forefront of the party; they have done extremely well for themselves and their families.

“With boarding schools, palatial residences out east and west, and overseas maids and butlers, surely they were not a government of the people.  In fact, this was the government of special interests.”

Mr. Dames also accused  the previous administration of being good on talk,  but poor on substance. 

He said, “while they dined on lobster and caviar, and sipped on Dom Perignon; the poor man’s struggles continue after decades of undelivered promises from the side opposite.

“With dilapidated and squandered living conditions, decades of abandonment, outside toilets, and poor infrastructure; yet they are the government of the people? What people?” he asked.