Have you noticed that Anguillians are not the only ones to have chanted, “Kill the bill!”? You know, on that fateful morning when the Speaker shocked those who had implored her not to proceed with the first “reading” of the Goods and Services Tax Act in 2021? But she did.
Have you also noticed that the parliamentary “reading” of a bill does not include actually reading the bill, but rather, its title? In our Westminster system, “reading” a bill refers to stages of debate from its introduction to additional discussions, before voting for or against it. So. Laws can be passed without the public hearing them – and without members of the House reading them. A newcomer might have expected an oral tradition rooted in ancient times of limited literacy. Not so.
Big, Budget Busting Bills!
As for killing bills, a flamboyant billionaire recently posted, “…Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL,” on his very own X account on June 4, 2025. That was after he had called the bill a “disgusting abomination” as it was moving from the US House to consideration by the Senate.[1] By the way, every budget here, and in the US, is actually an appropriation law. That is, bills required to fund our respective governments.
While GST has bankrupted our most vulnerable, we should have been demanding to “Kill the Bill” for every budget since GST. Why? The last administration passed budgets that have devastated households and local businesses by spending hundreds of millions more than when the AUF left office in 2019.[2] That’s right: after promising to “curb” spending and not impose GST.
How? They began with bills to take millions more from the People while the borders were closed. And by their final budget, their additional spending, alone, could have built another 10 Landsome Bowls. A year. On top of what they took for the airport and infrastructure. Yes. All that just for salaries and expenses. [2] GST and the rest of those bills should have been killed before they killed our economy.
Immoral, Grotesque Abominations
So that billionaire was joined by a senator from the majority in the US, who said, “This is immoral…This is grotesque, what we’re doing,” by adding trillions of dollars to the US national debt.[3] Notably, US debt is owed to investors and other nations buying bonds.
The senator added, “…let’s focus on our children and grandchildren, whose futures are being mortgaged, their prospects are being diminished by what we are doing to them.”[3] How? Passing that “disgusting abomination” would keep young Americans from paying for cars, college, buying homes, and starting businesses largely from higher interest rates. Whereas Anguillians were just taxed directly, taking food from their tables.
So. While forcing fragile families into multiple jobs from GST to pay for immoral, grotesque budget increases in the last administration, they were borrowing from our children’s education, building homes, starting businesses and hopes to retire in dignity – not to mention having a safe community. The debt from extortionate taxation is to our People, not a bank or bond market.
And, Regrets?
As the billionaire asserted, that bill was bad. In fact, it would have been killed but for one vote in the middle of the night. Yet, “…some Republicans now say they didn’t realize what they voted for.”[4]
This came to light as there were “several lawmakers who learned after voting for the president’s policy bill that it contained measures they oppose…[and] the victory has, for some, given way to regret… about measures they swear they did not know were included.”[4] One was unaware that the law would block judges’ ability to hold people “in contempt” if they failed to follow court orders. Another would have changed their vote if they had realised it would limit states’ rights to regulate artificial intelligence.[4] Hmm. Just as many here regretted their 2020 votes when promises not to impose GST were betrayed.
Voting without Reading?
In the US, politically charged calendars often lead to inserting massive sections of legislation at the last minute. That forces party votes to enact majority policies while adding measures into “must pass” bills without debate. When such measures benefit only individual constituencies, it is called “pork” – a reference to taking single servings from huge, salted pork barrels in the 1800s.[5]
The US bill in question reached 1,037 pages but only by 10:40 p.m. the night of the vote, “…giving lawmakers eight hours overnight to read it” while nonetheless planning a party vote regardless of what was in it. One remorseful lawmaker said, “You know, it’s hard to read over 1,000 pages when things keep changing up to the last minute…” That representative received some good advice posted by an opposition member: “PRO TIP: It’s helpful to read stuff before voting on it.”[4]
Does this sound familiar? They voted in the dark of night to pass the GST bill. Remember, its third “reading” followed by the Attorney General and Deputy Governor’s votes to override two elected ministers? So, the GST bill was not only immoral from passage of extortionate taxation during a pandemic, and grotesque from legalising demeaning intrusions in a small society, but it was also undemocratic. All from three “readings” ? without reading the bill!
Reading Bills in Anguilla?
That “reading” and two appointees’ GST votes enshrined vast IRD powers, from ruthless, random audits, seizure of goods, vehicles, records, and computers, to crippling penalties like the $500 daily late fees, as well as withholding of credits without recourse, except for meager interest. Countless powers at the Comptroller’s discretion include making assessments 5 years after the fact, forcing people under oath without legal representation, pursuing lost freedom of movement, and criminal referrals. In addition to requiring 50% of disputed amounts before consideration, and keeping 7 years of records under risk of severe punishment, it requires paying for the Comptroller’s choice of translators if they are not in English. The law also states that anything “necessary or convenient” may be amended, from the rate to the threshold and everything in between, with a single trip to the House – making it a crime to do business as we knew it in Anguilla.[6]
Still. At some 85 pages, was the GST bill too long for them to read it? One glaring tell was a rapid amendment to reduce a $15,000/day fine for simply failing to post a registration certificate. Yes. Per day. And when they must have copied the bill from another VAT country, they missed referring to a “VAT” invoice.[7] It also had changes at the last minute, like revealing the rate of 13% added to our cost of living – so they could spend our children’s dreams – with a single vote.
And while we await promised relief – we remain vulnerable to any future administration reinstating the full, grotesque, immoral and undemocratic rot in this bill. You know. With a single vote in the House, not unlike that single vote at the polls, where the People voted for those who voted against GST.
Repeal GST – and pass a balanced budget bill. Now.
This article reflects issues raised on July 5, 2021, at the House Select Committee on GST Public Hearing. [1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-kill-the-bill_n_684097f9e4b08d96c495c902; [2]GoA Budgets, 2019-2025; [3] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/04/ron-johnson-republican-spending-bill-elon-musk-trump.html; [4] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/us/politics/house-republicans-policy-bill-regrets.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OE8._3xl.yZIW53Ld0mvF&smid=url-share; [5] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/050615/where-did-phrase-pork-barrel-come.asp; [6] https://ird.gov.ai/; [7] VAT reference: Schedule 3; certificate penalty: Section 88.
