It’s so blatant it is galling. The Turnbull Government is promising $9 billion in extra funding to the States and Territories, buying their silence over a deal to save its political skin in WA, and questions about where the cash is coming from are being airily dismissed.

There used to be a time when $9 billion meant something. Especially to a Government that came to office demanding an assault on the “debt and deficit disaster” left by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan.

Five years on, with total government debt more than doubling to an all-time high of $533 billion (and on its way to far more) and the Budget still in deficit, an extra $9 billion in spending is considered nothing.

And it has happened just 10 weeks after the latest Budget from Scott Morrison which contained this pledge.

“New spending measures will be more than offset by reductions in spending elsewhere within the Budget,” Budget paper No.1 shows.

“The overall impact of shifts in receipts and payments due to changes in the economy will be banked as an improvement to the Budget bottom line, if this impact is positive.”

In non-Budget speak, 70 days ago the Treasurer promised that if the Government came up with some new spending plans it would cut spending in other areas so the nation’s finances were no worse off.

If the economy delivered extra dollars to the Budget then that would be used to reduce the deficit and pay down debt.

It was bad enough that the Government ignored its own promise at Budget time. The Budget papers showed better economic times delivered Canberra $35 billion in extra revenue but rather than banking all of it away to reduce debt and deficit — as its own Budget papers promised it would — about $15 billion was spent.

We’re now in early July and another $9 billion has gone on the never-never card.

It’s a broken promise, fair and simple. And the Government doesn’t want to talk about such a blatant breach of its own commitment to voters — both those of today and those well into the future.

Of the Government’s GST fix, $1.4 billion will be thrown at WA over the next two years.

That’s great for WA. It’s not great for the Budget bottom line or to future taxpayers — including West Australians — who will have to pay more interest on the debt left by past governments to secure a few seats.

The Government’s argument is that better economic times will pay for the largesse.

But better economic times end. West Australian voters know that especially well.

At a Federal level, Australia has avoided a recession for a record 27 years. As any football coach with an unbeaten team knows, every victory takes you closer to an inevitable loss.

Already there are growing concerns in the US that its nine-year expansion since the GFC means an inevitable correction.

That correction could easily be self-inflicted via a trade war between the US and everyone else, from China to Harley-Davidson.

Higher interest rates in the US mean a slowdown there which will also flow through to the rest of the world.

And all of this is predicated on no change to the proposal put by the Turnbull Government.

Like Oliver, the hands of premiers will soon be outstretched saying — “please sir, can I have some more”.

Queensland, where the Turnbull Government needs to hold on to a swag of marginal seats, could be the lead singer in this fiscal musical production.

Annastacia Palaszczuk is in a remarkably strong position to argue that Queensland won’t sign up unless it gets even more than the $518 million on offer over the next eight years. If that comes to pass expect any Budget constraint, again, to go out the window.

Here in WA, parts of the Government and the Opposition were out within minutes of the details being made public, all demanding some extra cash for their pet demand.

Just a reminder kids. The “money”, at this point, is just a couple of digits in a negotiating document pumped out by a Government looking to save its political skin.

It’s not in the State Government’s coffers. In fact, the $1.4 billion hasn’t even been raised from taxpayers.

Regional WA, for instance, is spotted with grand edifices built on the back of the Royalties for Regions program but with no money for maintenance or ongoing costs.

Under John Howard and Peter Costello, the proceeds of the mining boom were pumped into generous spending programs.

All was fine while the rivers of iron ore kept flowing. But along came the global financial crisis and the Budget — and all its generous spending — was exposed.

The Rudd and Gillard and the Abbott and Turnbull governments have spent the best part of the past decade trying to cut those Howard government giveaways.

But with the Turnbull Government now facing its own electoral oblivion (like the Howard government in 2007), the spigots have been loosened and taxpayers’ cash is flowing out the door.

It’s evident in the eight years for the GST fix. In the seven years for $144 billion in personal income tax cuts. In the decade of the $65 billion-plus from the company tax cuts.

And let’s not forget the more than $60 billion in borrowings the Government has that are off-budget because they will supposedly deliver a net return to the nation’s coffers.

Some of that borrowing is legitimate. Some of it, such as the Melbourne-Brisbane rail line, will end up in a book one day entitled “Creative Budget Accounting: Great Australian Failures”.

No one wants to be the spoil sport. The person who tells the guests it’s time to quieten down. The one who reminds their drinking friends they have to be up early tomorrow morning because of an early morning flight.

When it comes to the GST, West Australians are expected to be grateful that both sides of the political fence are offering them $2 billion over the next three years to deliver some fiscal justice. But that justice is coming at a cost that will have to be paid by someone.