Monday, August 16, 2010

Deficit - Thy Name Is Harper

From Ralph Goodale's latest update...

CONSERVATIVE “DOUBLE-SPEAK” ON THE DEFICIT

When Stephen Harper laments the federal deficit and claims he has to cut programs and services to save money – here are 10 things to remember:

1st -- When these Conservatives came into office in 2006, they inherited a thriving economy, the best fiscal situation in all the G-8 group of world-leading countries, declining debt and taxes, and budget surpluses of at least $13 billion per year.

2nd -- Mr. Harper squandered all that financial strength by 2008. He overspent at three-times the rate of inflation, slashed all contingency reserves and prudence factors from the federal budget, and put the country back into deficit again while the world economy was still buoyant and BEFORE there was any recession.

3rd -- The Harper government turned a $13 billion Liberal surplus with a $50 billion Conservative deficit.

4th -- The Conservatives are making their deficit worse, by $6 billion per year, by further cutting taxes for the biggest and wealthiest corporations (which already enjoy one of the most favourable tax rates in the world).

5th -- Mr. Harper runs a bloated Cabinet, and now he’s increasing the size of his own office by another 20%.

6th -- The Conservatives have wasted more than a billion dollars on extra partisan consultants and self-serving advertising.

7th -- According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Mr. Harper is increasing prison costs in Canada by $10-$13 billion.

8th -- By dumbing-down the Census, the Conservatives will actually increase StatsCan administrative costs by $30 million – to collect unreliable data.

9th -- Mr. Harper blew $1.3 billion on extravagant arrangements for G-8/G-20 meetings, which accomplished nothing of any consequence.

10th -- The Conservatives are pushing $26 billion out the door to buy new military equipment, without a whiff of competitive tendering.

How is any of this “fiscally responsible”?


-- Post From My iPhone

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agree with his assertion, but man am I tired of Goodale. The party really needs to clean house of these old guys.

A Eliz. said...

The people that vote for Harper are turning a blind eye, or honestly do not know what he has done. How stupid can they be?
It would make most of the voters cringe.

CanadianSense said...

Ask Kevin Page what were the largest areas of spending of the CPC since taking power in 2006.

The CPC did not repeat the neo-Liberalism in 1990's against women, the poor and the unemployed.

Sadly the CPC are moving to slow for some in the left to repair the damage done by those ideological cuts by Chretien-Martin Liberals.

WesternGrit said...

Anon, I'd disagree with your assessment of Ralph G. He's considerably younger than his years in Parliament suggest (being the youngest MP ever elected at the time he first was elected). He is also one of the most progressive thinkers in the party - even hailing from the Reform "heartland" of the Prairies. He has maintained successful ties with the various levels of government in Sask., and the man is quite brilliant in it's own right.

Ralph won "Parliamentarian of the Year" only a handful of years ago, and his strong Parliamentary style is an asset to the party.