“The free market system is superior to socialism when it comes to generating wealth and prosperity.”
“We don’t need more government in Canada, we need less.”
“Since free speech is the life blood of democracy; it’s time to scrap election gag laws and it’s time to defang Human Rights Commissions.”
“Why is the government in the broadcast business? We should privatize the CBC.”
“The government’s monopoly on health care services must end; Canadians deserve a choice.”
Since becoming Prime Minister, Stephen Harper has never said any of these things; don't you wish he would?
Rather than implementing massive annual spending increases of up to 13%, an indisputable small-c fiscal conservative PM or finance minister would circumvent a deficit circumstance by detecting $10 billion of cuts within $210 billions of program expenditures. How arduous can it be to find less than 5 cents of cuts for each dollar spent bearing in mind all of the unreservedly incompetent, useless and/or excessive programs? Ex: end the billion plus annual, unwarranted spending on the far-left, bias CBC.
ReplyDeleteIt can be done: even the leftist Chretien/Matin team did it! Since the federal civil services cuts in the 90s, the over-paid, under worked civil service is once again severely bloated and badly requires abridging. If Harper was a valid small-c fiscal conservative he would cut taxes, de-regulate, privatize, eliminate or amalgamate unwarranted departments, pathetic free market encumbering crown corporations, and superfluous programs that re-distributes wealth rather than facilitate the creation of additional job creating wealth.
Unfortunately small-c fiscal, social and/or judicial conservatives are not represented in Harper’s Conservative Party, or this parliament. If Harper inflicts Canadians with an avoidable deficit resulting from his superfluous overspending, and his repudiation to adroitly and competently manage the budget, principled Conservative Party members who repudiate exchanging their conservative ideology for their aspiration, must instantaneously demand a leadership convention.
--machiavelli
All excellent policies!! I want to hear tem too!
ReplyDeletewould circumvent a deficit circumstance by detecting $10 billion of cuts within $210 billions of program expenditures.
ReplyDeleteIgnorance, thy name is conservative. The federal budget isn't $210 billion. When you factor in things like $35 billion in interest payments on the debt, transfers to provinces (cutting that would be as welcome as a case of the clap), old age security payments (you wouldn't cut my grammy's pension would you?) and other non-discretionary spending items, the real federal budget--aka discretionary spending--is only about $75 billion. Since one third of that is defence spending it leaves only $50 billion (for silly things like paying the RCMP, judges, prison guards, etc) to find places to make cuts. And cutting $10 billion from that is a 20% cut, not a 5% cut.
even the leftist Chretien/Matin team did it!
They were neither leftist nor did they make many cuts. They mostly just froze budget levels until increased revenues overtook our deficit.
“Why is the government in the broadcast business? We should privatize the CBC.”
ReplyDeleteBwahahaha. Five decades of FAIL! Conservatives should really give this one up. The amount of money spent on the CBC is insignificant and continually railing about this only makes them look like street corner cranks. I actually think the CBC would be well on it's way to privatization if conservatives hadn't made such a big deal over it the past five decades.
it’s time to scrap election gag laws
It must sting that Harper is actually making this worse (ie. reducing the amount of money a citizen can contribute to their party of choice).
Robert,
ReplyDeleteIt does sting.
Ha ha ha seriously do you think Harper is still a Reformer? You've been had! He's a bigger spender than the Liberals ever were. He shows no fiscal restraint.
ReplyDeleteI wish I lived in Mr Mcclelland's world where almost a billion dollars in funding a year (CBC TV) is insignificant. I read a stat posted by the CTF not that long ago that said with CBC and the gun registry off the budget personal income exemptions would raise to almost $16,000 per year. That don't sound very insignificant to me.
ReplyDeleteThe most important cut that could be made is a major cut to the funds allocated to Official Bilingualism, which when the blatant discrimination against English speaking Canadians is taken into account, is nothing less than the Battle of the Plains of Abraham (1759) Round Two.
ReplyDeleteRobert: you may want to have someone read by comments to you and then explain them. I said:
ReplyDelete"$210 billions of program expenditures"
Robert, have someone explain the word "program" to you.
---machiavelli
Answer to your question: No. But thanks for asking all the same
ReplyDeleteThe small-c fiscal, social and judicial conservative that Conservative Party members misguidedly thought they were voting for as our leader in 2002 would, under no circumstance, tolerate the country to return to a colossal, superfluous 30 plus billion dollar deficit which will undeniably not be short term and could do more harm than good. Anyone who believes that this deficit will be transitory has no sense of history. History validates how quickly so-called “temporary” spending programs are converted into the permanent financial structure paid for by enduring tax increases.
ReplyDeleteRather than accepting Obama’s moronically socialistic claim that “only the government can break the vicious cycles crippling the economy”, the small-c fiscal conservative that we understood we had elected would know that a country can not spend its way out of a recession, and would permit the market to heal itself. Fiscal conservatives know that if additional spending was the solution we wouldn’t be in this recession disarray since comrade Harper’s government is spending more than any preceding government. A fiscal conservative PM would know that there is a finite number of dollars to be spent by either the private sector or by government. He also is aware that all non-socialistic studies categorically substantiate that private sector spending is immeasurably more beneficial than government spending. Another aspect of deficit spending philosophy that a genuine fiscal conservative PM would notify his people is that deficit spending means that the government of the day is stealing money from our grandchildren and all future generations who will be inflicted with massive taxes to pay for today’s superfluous, colossal spending increase. At the very least, Harper must incorporate sunset legislation in his budget bill that stipulate that the government, after two quarters of positive GDP growth, will immediately begin to pay down this new debt in a very brief, overtly stated, explicit duration.
The genuine conservative we sought would slash wasteful, profligate and peripheral billions from the $230 billion Federal budget. As an economist he knows that tax cuts are more effective market place healers than government spending, and, therefore a small-c fiscal conservative would recover dollars for tax cuts. The conservative we thought we had elected would expedite across the board cuts to all program spending, cut million of dollars of improvident foreign aid that ends up in dictators’ banks accounts, eradicate ineffectual programs, place an absolute freeze on all government hiring, sell government assets, close worthless crown corporations ( specifically the far-left bias CBC). He would also save hundreds of millions of dollars by diminishing immigrants levels by 33% for the next three years. He would recognize that tax dollars are not government dollars, but taxpayers own money; therefore he would apply those resuscitate tax dollars to retroactively lower all personal income taxes for 2008 and beyond, cut payroll taxes, corporate taxes and capital gain taxes which would put dollars into the hands of people who would immediately spend it and expedite the market place healing process. A fiscal conservative would also allow business to immediately expense new capital purchases. The cut in capital gains taxes and corporate tax cuts would attract foreign investments which is required to end this recession and allow the economy to expand.
The most interesting aspect of Harper’s tax cuts will be the actual amount of personal tax cut, as opposed to the amount of tax credits to people who don’t actually pay any personal income tax and, therefore, do not warrant a personal income tax rebate. For these people a tax credit is simply a welfare payment, not a tax cut. People maintain that if these people are working they forfeit pay-roll taxes and therefore deserve a tax rebate. Fine; but give them a cut in their pay-roll taxes rather than a welfare tax credit. Also, pay-roll tax cuts are cheaper for the government to expedite since checks do not have to be printed and mailed.
The structure of his deficit package will be a sign of just how far to the left our Prime Minister is willing to intervene in the economy with his new, far-left economics. Hopefully it won’t be too far, but don't count on it! Harper’s plunge to the left by bailing out the auto unions, and creating a unnecessary, credulously massive deficit are illustrations that legitimate small-c fiscal, social and judicial conservatives are not represented in his Conservative Party.
In 2002 when we thought we were electing a small-c fiscal, social and judicial conservatives we should have paid more intention to what Tom Flanagan would later write in his book, Harper’s Team: "Some socially conservatives constituency presidents and councils remained skeptical of Harper”. As it turned out it was not only the social conservatives who should have been skeptical of Harper.
machiavelli