The Left: Bad at Math
October 31, 2007 · By Shane Edwards
In an astonishingly unslanderous article over at the Star, Flaherty’s tax cuts are called moderate.
However, nothing could be completely rosy in a piece by the Red Star on the subject of a Conservative politician.
He takes issue with 10 billion of the surplus being paid towards the debt.
“In moderation, debt reduction is useful. But given the real problems this country faces – from infrastructure, to poverty, to the environment, to the need for public transit, to housing – couldn’t Flaherty have spared just $3 or $4 billion to fix up the public space we all inhabit?”
Never mind that at 5% interest on the debt, with that one paydown Flaherty has saved Canadians a half a billions dollars PERMANENTLY that can be used for exactly what he describes: infrastructure, poverty, the environment, public transit, housing… the list goes on. It will take only 8 years for that half billion to turn into the 4 billion he wanted spent on programs. How many Liberal promises were made to spend 4 billion on various programs over 8 years?
But Flaherty didn’t have to raise taxes to do it. That’s what makes him a Conservative, and that is why the Left should never be allowed to run this country again.
Remind me - which party was it that eliminated the giant deficit left by the Mulroney government? Which party got this country back in the black after the Conservatives had over 8 years of a majority government to fix it?
Riiight..the Left. Wouldn’t want to have them back in power. No telling what they’d do.
Abattoir, you are correct. Mulroney’s Conservatives were not willing to commit political suicide to get rid of the Trudeau policies that created the debt. Sadly, the public was not willing to get rid of those policies then. The Liberals got rid of having to pay for them by downloading to the provinces who then downloaded to the municipalities without transferring the tax points. That is not how anyone should balance the deficit. If the Left got back into power, we should assume that we can expect more dumb ideas like that to be implemented.
John M Reynolds
Unless the government reduces spending, everything is just a great big joke — a particularly hilarious joke played on self-described conservatives who are ignorant of federal economics.
Granted, Flaherty did suggest that we should not expect spending increases but that is not enough. The government must cut spending.
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I will grant the Conservative government the benefit of the doubt: after gaining more public support with this recent mini-budget, they have a better chance of announcing budget cuts in the future. Proper government policy changes can not happen instantaneously.
However, if this government never reduces spending, the tax cuts mean nothing.
Also, the Liberals just had to stop increases in spending and let the revenues generated by the Conservative’s GST and Free Trade to start kicking in. The increased revenues from the GST coupled by the boost to the economy from free trade and the elimination of the manufacturing tax is what gave the government the revenue to stop deficit spending, plus getting out of the recession and getting rid of the NDP in the economic engine of the country didn’t hurt either.