Two trillion baht infrastructure bill ruled unconstitutional – Bangkok Post, March 12, 2014
[The 2.2 trillion baht spending bill represents the Pheu Thai-led government at the very height of its confidence. It is no wonder that after its passage and after voting to change to the senate to be a fully elected body, both of which elicited little public outcry, the government felt confident enough to finally try to grant Thaksin amnesty.
The spending bill also reflected this confidence in the very Thaksinesque method of its passage–circumventing normal parliamentary processes, suspending normal procurement methods, and treating the expedited process as if it were an emergency situation.
The huge spending spree has an added resonance as both Thaksin and the Red Shirts made criticizing Democrat Party spending a key part of their pitch to the electorate. More about this here: The Irony of Massive Government Borrowing]
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