OnTheIce OnTheIce:
bootlegga bootlegga:
And yet Chretien and Martin had surpluses...hmmm.
The GST tax cut, while nice, shouldn't have happened. Harper made the mistake of cutting close to $15 Billion in tax revenues right before a major recession hit. That would have made a big difference in the bottom line these last few years.
And if he didn't, I'd be betting you'd be one of the first to jump on him for a broken promise kinda like Conservatives do with Chretien...despite it being the smart choice
Nope, I have no problem agreeing with Harper where he made the right decision - like on income trusts. He went back on an election promise that was for the good of the country - kudos.
AFAIK, this is the only decision Harper ever made that really angered his political base - even then once it was explained - most forgave him pretty quickly for going back on his promise. Like I said, he needs to take the road not taken and say this is for the good of the country, not the party. Sure, he'll suffer in the short term, but he's got more than three years to heal the wounds and taxpayers memories are usually incredibly short.
FYI, I don't have a problem with tax cuts, but I think Harper should have cut income taxes by either lowing the tax rates at the low end or increasing the basic personal credit (my preference), instead of cutting the GST.
As a consumption tax, the GST affects the wealthy far more than it does the poor. After all, who is going to pay more tax, the guy buying a donut for $.79 or the guy buying a fancy pastry at an upscale bakery for $4.50 (same goes for cars, houses, etc - the more expensive the item, the higher the sales taxes paid).
But what Harper did was cut the GST and RAISE income taxes - doing the exact opposite, which of course plays to his political base.
The same could be argued for the TFSAs he set up - that is going to cost future governments tens of billions of dollars in lost taxes. After all, how many people living on $20,000 a year can afford to save $5000 a year, even if it is tax free? Yet the wealthy can do it every year and to the maximum limit, which is going to cost us big time down the road.
OnTheIce OnTheIce:
bootlegga bootlegga:
It's not that he can't, it's that he won't.
Cutting spending in the 90s was both necessary and hard, but Chretien did it regardless and while many departments suffered, in the end, it was what the country needed.
Can you imagine if the Chretien Liberals had continued to tax and spend they way they did under Trudeau? Canada would be in a far worse position than Greece right now, but because Chretien and Martin took a hard stand on finance, Canada got its credit rating restored to AAA.
Sorry, but if Harper really did what was necessary for Canada (and not his party and their supporters), he might be surprised to find that Canadians would support him. Instead, the cuts he has made so far are nothing more than partisan politics and playing to his base.
Harper needs to grow a pair and just do his job.
Easy to say, but we're not comparing apples to apples. In politics, we never are. Situations are always different.
Chretien and Martin also had a strong economy to help them through the cuts. They weren't just coming out of a World recession having spent 50+ billion to stimulate the economy.
The economy wasn't always rosy while Chretien and Martin were in office. I think you're forgetting the dot com bubble and the recession post 9/11 shortly thereafter - yet as bad as both those were, the government still paid down the debt and had a surplus. And best of all, because we had that surplus, the government could afford to spend billions on strengthening border security, fighting a war in Afghanistan etc.
If something similar were to happen now, our deficit would balloon from its current $30 odd billion back over the $50 billion mark. Maybe you are comfortable handing down nearly a trillion dollar debt to your children and grandchildren, but I'm not.
Still, if we had the $15 billion or so from the GST, the deficits in 2008 and 2009 would have only been $35+ billion instead of $50+ billion. Maybe it's no big deal to you, but that's a difference of $30 billion or so. That's not chump change. Think if Harper had had the $45 or so billion that was NOT collected in 2008, 2009, and 2010 - it would have gone a long way to paying for stimulus spending. Tack on the $15 billion from this year and it equals the $60 billion he wants to give back to corporations.
Like I said, Harper needs to grow a pair and do what's best for the country, not his career. I never liked Chretien or Trudeau or Mulroney very much, but at least when they made the hard calls: Chretien - Debt & Deficit; Trudeau - Quebec Crisis & Constitution; Mulroney - Free trade $ GST), I think that they did it because they thought that was what Canada needed to do, not because it might please their political base.
Lots of people may never like Stephen Harper, but they might just respect the guy if he does.
That's all I'm asking Harper to do. If he wants to be considered a great PM, then he needs to step up. Otherwise, he can join R.B. Bennett and others in the dustbin of history as leaders who weren't up to the task at hand.
CKA Uber 
CKA Uber 
His connections at (name any random group, government, department, faculty or regiment) will have you 
