Tweedledum, and Tweedledumber

"My reading of NZ Treasury's Half Year Economics & Fiscal Update 2024 is that little has changed since the government changed. ...
    "The average of [the fiscal deficit (excess of government spending over taxes)], which comprise the Coalition's first term in office, is -3.4%. ... How does it compare to when former PM Jacinda Ardern & Finance Minister Grant Robertson governed? ... The[ir] average is -1.6%. So National, ACT & NZ First are on course to more than double the size of fiscal deficits that were run during the Ardern-Robertson years.
    "What's more, the year when the deficit really blew out, being 2020, was due entirely to the wage subsidy scheme expansion [for which] National lobbied hard ... to make it of unlimited size ... Before the wage subsidy cap was lifted, the maximum any one firm could take was $250,000. After the cap came off, firms like Fletcher Building scooped over $50 million each.
    'What's the moral of the story? That National and Labour are essentially the same party, just run by different actors, sales folks and marketing directors who are pretending their two products are different, because they use different branding & colors. They're like Coke and Pepsi Cola. ... Same old. Same old."

~ Robert MacCulloch from his post 'Its Official: Behind all the Hot Air from the PM & Finance Minister, National is Running a Bigger Borrow-and-Spend Government than 6 years of Ardern & Robertson.'