Monday, March 15, 2010

Conservative Deficits Don't Have Conservative Solutions

It would be a crying shame if Canadians are duped by the Reform-a-Tories into thinking these buffoons can manage an economy... Their recession denials last year, AND their deficit spending BEFORE it sinks their (leaky) boat...

Ralph Goodale this morning:

TAMING CONSERVATIVE DEFICITS WON’T BE ENOUGH!

What will it take to lift Canada into the forefront of global economic excellence?

According to Stephen Harper’s March 4th budget, the only thing that matters is getting rid of that massive deficit that he himself created. His “solution” is five long years of punishing austerity – to the exclusion of everything else, nothing but freezes, cuts and diminished expectations.

That’s the penalty Canadians will pay for bad Conservative management since 2006.

Long before there was any recession, Mr. Harper was massively overspending by three-times the rate of inflation. He put the country “into the red” BEFORE the recession.

He also recklessly used up every reserve and prudence factor in the federal books that were supposed to serve as economic shock-absorbers against adverse events. And he ignored all sensible warnings of trouble in the U.S. housing and banking sectors.

The result is $54 billion in deficit this year and $150 billion over five years.

To rescue Canadians from Mr. Harper’s mess will take hard decisions, skilful management and discipline. But that alone will not be sufficient. The Conservative deficit is not the only thing that needs fixing.

Brainpower: Canada is not investing nearly enough in lifelong learning from early childhood development to university post-graduate degrees.

Innovation: Canada is trailing the world in science, new technology and the commercialization of our best new ideas.

Global Business Networks: Repairing relationships with countries like China and India, Canada needs to position itself globally to attract up-scale, high-paying jobs. Reliance on the U.S. market won’t be enough.

Retirement Incomes: This is a massive worry for middle-income earners over 40 who don’t know if they can afford to retire.

The “care” agenda: Child-care, elder-care, disabled-care. These needs put great pressures on families, economically and otherwise.

All of these are legitimate priorities, right along side the Conservative deficit.


-- Post From My iPhone

2 comments:

bubba said...

Canada will grow out of the defecit in 4-5 years. Then there will be surpluses.All banks are calling for much larger growth than Kevin Page is.The Government is too big already.No taxes will help and slashing transfers will not help. When the surplusses come in time, then talk about program additions.For now any new program should come at the expense of the least effective current program. I can not afford 1 more dollar of tax and my province and municipality can not afford 1 dollar of offloading.

WesternGrit said...

It will be difficult, if not impossible, to "outgrow" the deficit in 4 to 5 years. First of all, this government has not created a growth oriented policy. They have shrunken into a little huddled ball on the floor of their bedrooms, weeping miserably that they screwed Canada by wasting a huge surplus. Secondly, the annual growth rate (GDP) is miniscule - with more potential tough times (Tory times?) ahead... The EU economic challenges, rooted in the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) economic collapses WILL have an impact on Canada, and even Canadian banks. Adjustments will have to be made either way: if those economies collapse, or if they survive but reneg on their debts...

Conservatives have (as usual) left us ill prepared to face world economic challenges - or even domestic/continental ones.