I didn't say they were. I said it's disingenuous to say tax credits are 'spending' but tax cuts aren't.

If you're not saying tax cuts are spending, then why are you saying it's disingenuous to not equate them? When the government spends money it's government spending. When people keep more of their income it's not government spending. I'm afraid I don't think I can simplify this further for you.

Again, not the point. It's quite possible that by raising revenue more than spending they could run larger surpluses than the government. The Greens for instance, have only slightly lower surpluses than forecasted in PREFU, and with National's changes in campaign promises could end up with bigger surpluses than the Nats eventually.

You're looking at this as if government = population. "Raising Revenue" is government taking money from the population to spend. Tax cuts are government less money from the population to allow them to spend. These are very different things, even if debt remained equal.