The proposed budget law, prepared by the prior government and adopted by the current one (with some minor revisions), resembles the ongoing negotiations on completing the formation of the government. Just as the participants in these negotiations had left behind the pretence of responding to popular demands and are engaged in a replay of the prior squabbles over the spoils of war. This budget too is a replay of the prior budgets and a continuation of the old rentier state practices and socialist policies. For both cases, the old Iraqi saying “رجعت حليمة لعادتها القديمة” or “Halima has gone back to her old ways” is an apt depiction.

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