Normally, governments in Westminster-style parliamentary democracies reserve the pre-election goodies for the year before an election.
Today's budget may see one or two pre-election goodies given away to taxpayers, particularly the low-paid.
In India many voters in tight races also expect pre-election goodies, so politicians regularly dish out cash, TVs, food mixers, saris, rice, whisky and even, in Punjab this year, heroin.
Drafts of this year's budget are laden with election-year goodies, some worthy, some not, that could win final approval on May 1 when the full Legislature is expected to return from spring break.
Tony Bullock, a spokesman for Mr. Moynihan, insisted that the issue was not about denying Mr. Lazio an election-year goody in his quest to defeat Hillary Rodham Clinton and succeed Mr. Moynihan, who is retiring.
Yesterday the Chancellor delivered a deeply political Budget seven weeks ahead of the general election, offering financial goodies to taxpayers, savers, home-buyers and the regions of Britain, while doing his best to blunt Labour's lines of attack in what is expected to be the most tightly-fought campaign of modern times.
As well as opposing the Iraq war (a magnet for disaffected Labour voters at that election), they promised generous goodies such as free care for the elderly, all paid for by tax increases.
He force-feeds us a cartoon version of how Japan is governed -- by "near dictatorial" bureaucrats -- when, in fact, the system goes forward because politicians win re-election for delivering concrete goodies: roads, schools, community centers, hospitals.
Instead, he has given his party room to offer conditional goodies in its election manifesto – tax cuts that will come voters' way if the Tories remain in office and the economy continues to revive.
