"Kadima acts. At lot. It manages the Ministry of Finance. The comments heard were made by people with no responsibilities, and I am referring to [Labor Party chairman and Minister of Defense Ehud] Barak and [Likud chairman MK Benjamin] Netanyahu," Minister of Finance Ronnie Bar-On told "Globes" in a special interview today.
Bar-On added, "These are election comments by people who promise rose gardens that will never flourish. Netanyahu? He has no plan. The plan he talks about is our stimulus plan. He also talks about an attempt to solve the credit crunch, which we're already dealing with. Netanyahu talks telegraphically. He gives no details, and he talks about things that have no chance of being realized.
"If we reduce revenues by as much as Netanyahu proposes and add to the spending side everything that Barak proposes, how will we run the country? Do they know how to find gold in the sand? Are they alchemists?"
Bar-On said, "When I took up this post, there was a sense of infinite wealth here. Mr. Bibi stood on every stage and related how he left storehouses full of money. Everyone had proposals about what to do. Imagine how we would have entered this crisis had I accepted every proposal to act as if there was no tomorrow, and I spent everything in the reserves."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 29, 2009
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2009