Has Josh Frydenberg done enough to win the coalition an election or has he delivered a Dead Budget Walking?
There are tax cuts for the voters the coalition needs on board.
There is road and rail spending in the states where seats have to be won.
There is a surplus in 2019/20, but a more cautious outlook in the years beyond that as the global economy slows and wages remain stagnant.
"Let me be clear: the answer to these challenges is not higher taxes," Frydenberg said on Tuesday night.
That's the line voters will hear incessantly until the May election - Labor will tax you more, the coalition will tax you less.
But Labor offered bigger personal income tax cuts last year and - given the state of the budget - has the scope to match and exceed whatever promises the coalition has made this year.
There are no real losers in this budget, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison will hammer home in coming weeks.
In Labor's version there will be losers - especially self-funded retires who rely on cash handouts from franking credits.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is going after negative gearing, trusts and dividend imputation, ending generous tax breaks that hit older voters.
If the coalition wins in May, then Frydenberg has done his part.
There is infrastructure spending in the key battleground states of Victoria and Queensland, and billions on new projects in western Sydney and outer suburbs, targeting marginal seats.
Morrison and his candidates can promise voters $1000 back in their pockets at tax time.
The budget forecasts are mainly conservative, apart from wage growth, which has been revised down in every coalition budget since 2014.
The surplus will be achieved, and net debt will be erased in a decade.
But the coalition is already a minority government, having had a ragged term, unseating a prime minister, copping criticism of its approach to women, refugees and climate, and spending more than 1000 days behind in the polls.
Labor is looking at victory and immediately rewriting this budget after the election.
Frydenberg designed a budget that has few, if any, losers but in a few weeks he'll find out whether it's dead on arrival.
