“Revenue Neutral Carbon Tax” = LIES
May 19, 2008 · By Shane Edwards
In Canada there is nothing. Absolutely nothing. That requires the government to account for the revenue generated by taxes. All goes into general revenue and is dibursed for whatever reason. Anyone who says anything different is LYING TO YOU.
Yes, it is theoretically possible that a government could calculate the possible revenue generated by a new tax, and reduce other taxes to balance the budget.
But, I do not know of this EVER happening in Canada. Government always miscalculates and apologizes later. The reason is that it is expedient to lie to get your way, if your only cost is to apologize after. It is always easier to get your way then apologize later than it is to suffer the ignominy of not getting your way, even if you were wrong.
Every tax increase ever introduced in Canada has been accompanied by the promise that it will be “revenue-neutral”. It has never been true.
I defy anyone to prove any assertion of this post wrong.
If there is any way forward, it is the passing first of legislation that forces government to dedicate revenue from certain taxes to certain services. This needs to be done for every tax in existence on the books. It is only with accountability for income and expense that this promise can be seriously meant… and kept.
If this was done, then the government may actually become accountable to the people. But we know that nobody in government wants that.
“I defy anyone to prove any assertion of this post wrong.”
Ok, I’ll bite.
“In Canada there is nothing.”
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps....._pol99.jpg
When have the Liberals ever made a promise i.e: This will be Revenue Neutral and kept it? Like “We will abolish the GST (Chretien)” We will abide by the Kyoto protocol (Martin/Dion) We will make this Gun registry work for only a million bucks..and so on and so on etc. ecetera..ad nauseum
Shane,
You are absolutely correct that any statement that a carbon tax will be revenue neutral is a lie. However, the reason you are correct is not an environmental issue.
No tax is revenue neutral because revenue is exceedingly dynamic across our great federation — it is a moving target. The very concept of a “revenue neutral” intervention is nonsense. It makes as much sense to say that the deep-freezer is “temperature neutral” after taking out nine frozen TV dinners and replacing them with the left-over roast.
I hate giving the Liberals advice but they should not label their policy as revenue neutral. They should just call it a tax and explain what they are doing.