{"id":1082,"date":"2008-02-28T21:12:08","date_gmt":"2008-02-29T02:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=1082"},"modified":"2018-08-15T00:53:21","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T04:53:21","slug":"thursday-february-28-2008-oops-i-missed-that-angle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=1082","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, February 28, 2008 \u2014 Oops! I Missed That Angle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Skye Sepp points out to me that the Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive bud\u00adget is not as innocu\u00adous as I believed. I find his objec\u00adtion entire\u00adly con\u00advinc\u00ading, and here\u00adby change my mind. He focus\u00ades on the \u201ctax-free $5,000 account\u201d pro\u00adgram, which looks very attrac\u00adtive on the sur\u00adface. But, on clos\u00ader exam\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion, it turns out to be a swin\u00addle, aimed at neu\u00adtral\u00adiz\u00ading the pro\u00adgres\u00adsive income tax sys\u00adtem, so that the rich pay less while the poor and aver\u00adage Cana\u00addi\u00adans pay more. In the pro\u00adgram, Indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adals will be able to put only $5,000 a year into accounts to earn tax-free inter\u00adest and\/or cap\u00adi\u00adtal gains. In their first full year of oper\u00ada\u00adtion, this will cost the fed\u00ader\u00adal trea\u00adsury only $50 mil\u00adlion in lost tax rev\u00adenue. That\u2019s why it did\u00adn\u2019t leap out of the bud\u00adget with glar\u00ading warn\u00ading lights. In fact, it looked rather warm and fuzzy. The small ini\u00adtial sum makes it look like a mea\u00adsure aimed at Cana\u00addi\u00adans with mod\u00adest sav\u00adings. The Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtives keep repeat\u00ading that it would \u201chelp some\u00adone buy a car\u201d \u2014 which is non\u00adsense on the face of it, as you would have to have very large amounts in sav\u00adings for it to be use\u00adful for that.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, on clos\u00ader exam\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion, the con\u00adtri\u00adbu\u00adtion lim\u00adits are cumu\u00adla\u00adtive and indexed to infla\u00adtion. With\u00adin 20 years, it will cost the trea\u00adsury $3 bil\u00adlion annu\u00adal\u00adly, in infla\u00adtion-adjust\u00aded dol\u00adlars. Only the rich will have the mon\u00adey avail\u00adable to take advan\u00adtage of this in any sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant way. It amounts to a tax shel\u00adter that will hand back large chunks of tax rev\u00adenue from the wealthy, with\u00adout even offer\u00ading the advan\u00adtages of exist\u00ading tax shel\u00adters (which at least ben\u00ade\u00adfit char\u00adi\u00adties, muse\u00adums, and edu\u00adca\u00adtion). That short\u00adfall will have to be made up by \u2014 I\u2019ll give you a sec\u00adond to guess .\u2026. yup, the ordi\u00adnary, mid\u00addle-income tax\u00adpay\u00ader who car\u00adries the bur\u00adden of the cost of gov\u00adern\u00adment. These will have the illu\u00adsion that they are gain\u00ading some\u00adthing, but will ulti\u00admate\u00adly have it taxed back from them, with an extra burden.<\/span><\/p>\n

It shows you what the real Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive ide\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy is: Keep a tiny aris\u00adtoc\u00adra\u00adcy rich, for ever and ever, prefer\u00adably with\u00adout hav\u00ading to work for it. Make the ordi\u00adnary Cana\u00addi\u00adan pay for every\u00adthing, through the nose, whether it ben\u00ade\u00adfits them or not, for ever and ever. In oth\u00ader words, the eco\u00adnom\u00adic ide\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy of Vladimir Lenin. The Repub\u00adli\u00adcans used the same kind of slick, bait-and-switch, ball-under-the-cups shenani\u00adgans to stick the Amer\u00adi\u00adcan pub\u00adlic with a \u201creform\u201d of the inher\u00adi\u00adtance tax that ben\u00ade\u00adfit\u00aded the .01% rich\u00adest Amer\u00adi\u00adcans and stuck ordi\u00adnary Amer\u00adi\u00adcans with the hid\u00adden costs. Noth\u00ading could more clear\u00adly illus\u00adtrate the \u201celites as con-artists\u201d the\u00adsis I put for\u00adward in the Med\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtions On Democ\u00adra\u00adcy. It also shows that when it looks like a good deal, you bet\u00adter damn well read the fine print.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wednes\u00adday, Feb\u00adru\u00adary 27, 2008 \u2014 A Cor\u00adrect Lib\u00ader\u00adal Call on the Budget<\/span><\/p>\n

In Cana\u00adda, the his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal record is clear: the Lib\u00ader\u00adal Par\u00adty has estab\u00adlished a tra\u00addi\u00adtion of respon\u00adsi\u00adble fis\u00adcal man\u00adage\u00adment. The Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive Par\u00adty are incom\u00adpe\u00adtent yahoos who will spend us into a night\u00admare of debt.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Lib\u00ader\u00adals came into pow\u00ader in 1993, the Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtives had left us with crip\u00adpling deficits. The Lib\u00ader\u00adal Par\u00adty over\u00adsaw near\u00adly a decade of extreme\u00adly painful fis\u00adcal mea\u00adsures, many of them extreme\u00adly unpop\u00adu\u00adlar. But we entered the new mil\u00adlen\u00adni\u00adum with sur\u00adplus\u00ades, and by the time the par\u00adty was defeat\u00aded on minor, eco\u00adnom\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly irrel\u00ade\u00advant issues (it was most\u00adly just bore\u00addom with a par\u00adty too long in the sad\u00addle) in 2006, had been pay\u00ading down its debts for a decade and hefty bud\u00adget sur\u00adplus\u00ades were the norm. Despite many things I strong\u00adly object\u00aded to in the Par\u00adty\u2019s poli\u00adcies, every time I spoke to a fed\u00ader\u00adal Mem\u00adber of Par\u00adlia\u00adment, it was obvi\u00adous that keep\u00ading out of debt was always the num\u00adber one issue on their mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now we have had only two years of Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive gov\u00adern\u00adment, and the huge sur\u00adplus we had in the bank has erod\u00aded to a small nest-egg. What most Cana\u00addi\u00adans don\u2019t under\u00adstand is that even that nest-egg only reflects cur\u00adrent account. Future com\u00admit\u00adments and new\u00adly embed\u00added poli\u00adcies tell a fright\u00aden\u00ading tale: we are only a minor cri\u00adsis or a reces\u00adsion away from going back into debt. And guess what? The reces\u00adsion is here. Ontario and Que\u00adbec are already tee\u00adter\u00ading on reces\u00adsion. In oth\u00ader words, typ\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly reck\u00adless, irre\u00adspon\u00adsi\u00adble Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive eco\u00adnom\u00adic mis\u00adman\u00adage\u00adment has screwed us. Vast wel\u00adfare hand\u00adouts to the rich, the Alber\u00adta ener\u00adgy indus\u00adtries, and the Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtives\u2019 coterie of cor\u00adpo\u00adrate friends (which does not include the mod\u00adern tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy and man\u00adu\u00adfac\u00adtur\u00ading sec\u00adtors), as well as unbe\u00adliev\u00adably expen\u00adsive mil\u00adi\u00adtary adven\u00adtures under\u00adtak\u00aden as trib\u00adute to Wash\u00ading\u00adton, have turned our fat deficits into a time-bomb of self-destruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

When will peo\u00adple learn that it is Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtives who are the chron\u00adic mis-man\u00adagers of economies? Can\u2019t they see what thir\u00adty years of Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive eco\u00adnom\u00adic quack\u00adery (prac\u00adticed as much by Democ\u00adrats as by Repub\u00adli\u00adcans) has done to our neigh\u00adbours to the south? There, it has reduced the world\u2019s wealth\u00adi\u00adest nation to a pathet\u00adic glob\u00adal laugh\u00ading-stock of debt and incompetence.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skye Sepp points out to me that the Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive bud\u00adget is not as innocu\u00adous as I believed. I find his objec\u00adtion entire\u00adly con\u00advinc\u00ading, and here\u00adby change my mind. He focus\u00ades on the \u201ctax-free $5,000 account\u201d pro\u00adgram, which looks very attrac\u00adtive on the \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-as-blog-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8714,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions\/8714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}