The fact of the matter is, is that most of the increases in this year's budget, this past year's budget, were not as a consequence of policies that we initiated but instead were built in as a consequence of the automatic stabilizers that kick in because of this enormous recession.

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Mr Smith said the latest job cuts and loss of services were a consequence of Labour reversing the policy.

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Many amendments were rejected along strict party lines and were of little consequence because the entire budget is a nonbinding measure and destined not to become law.

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