A furious BBC Question Time audience member on Thursday took “economically illiterate” MPs to task in a fiery rant.
The Chancellor on Wednesday launched the biggest tax raid in history and confirmed hike Government spending.
Ms Reeves conceded the £40 billion tax hikes – including £25 bn in employer National Insurance contributions – will “have consequences” as firms shrink wage bills to cope with higher demands from the taxman.
Business leaders warned that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost while economists said the national insurance rise was a “tax on working people”.
And market jitters over the Chancellor’s plan for a massive borrowing binge sent the cost of government debt up.
Labour has tried to blame the tax hikes on a £22 bn black hole in the public finances.
But a member of the public raged on BBC Question Time: “My entire life – boom and bust.
“Whenever there is a change from Tory to Labour, Labour will come in, the Tories will come in, like Cameron did in 2010 and the Labour lot had left a note saying haha, there’s no money left.
“Then the Tories smashed the economy and Labour come in say ‘oh, well, we’ve got fill this 40 billion, 9 billion, 22 billion, it changes by the day, who knows.
“I do not understand how, out of 65 million people in this country, we end up with economically illiterate people in the Government.
“Boom and bust.
“All the time. You are not fit for office.
“This is our money. And I’m sick of being asked to pay more and more and more. I feel poorer than I did 15 years ago.
“Pay more and more to get less and less.
“And with regards to the NHS, you can tip as much money in it as you want. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and again and expecting a different result.”
Tories claimed the Budget amounts an extra £2,237 in tax for the average working household a year.
The analysis showed that over the next five years it would mean a total tax bill of over £9,700.
Choices made by the Chancellor will see the overall tax burden reach a record 38.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2027-28, the highest since 1948.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that by 2026-27, some 76% of the total cost of the NICs increase is passed on through lower real wages – a combination of a squeeze on pay rises and increased prices.
The measure could also lead to the equivalent of around 50,000 average-hour jobs being lost, the watchdog said.
Ms Reeves defended her reforms, insisting: “This Budget was to wipe the slate clean after the mismanagement and the cover-up of the previous government.
“I had to make big choices. I don’t want to repeat a Budget like this ever again, but it was necessary to get our public finances and our public services on a stable trajectory.”
But she admitted that national insurance hikes would have an impact on pay.
“I said that it will have consequences,” she said.
“It will mean that businesses will have to absorb some of this through profits, and it is likely to mean that wage increases might be slightly less than they otherwise would have been.
“But overall the Office of Budget Responsibility forecast that household incomes will increase during this Parliament. That is a world away from the last Parliament, which was the worst Parliament ever for living standards.”
Government borrowing costs hit their highest level in a year while the pound fell by a third of a percent against the dollar.
Economists warned the government will still need to raise up to another £9 billion after next year to avoid cutting spending on unprotected departments.
Although day-to-day spending is set to rise rapidly it slows down from 2026 to 1.3%.
