Skippy is not Happy…and neither am I
But it appears that worst of the Great Collapse is behind us. So what’s Harper’s deficit machine of a finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, going to do?The answer is … spend even more money, but disguise it as an austerity budget.
This budget has no spending cuts this year — in fact, it projects an increase of $4.5-billion from what was forecast as recently as last September. But it also has no cuts, or next to none, in future years. The September fiscal update projected spending over the next five years (fiscal 2011 through 2015) at $1.247 trillion. The budget now puts that figure at $1.245 trillion. Total spending cuts: $2-billion. Over five years. $400-million a year, from a budget of roughly $250-billion. ... The largest single saving, $6.5-billion in all or $2-billion a year at peak, comes from a two-year freeze on departmental operating budgets. That sounds tough, until you realize they’re freezing spending at 2010-11 levels: that is, at the very height of the stimulus-enhanced, shovels-in-the-ground, money-out-the-door frenzy. In 2011, according to the budget’s breakdown of federal expenses (p. 180), “operating expenses subject to freeze” totalled $54.9-billion, fully $10-billion more than they were just two years before. That’s where they’re freezing it. The peak has become the base.In short, we’re fucked. Jim Flaherty spent his his first four years engaging in Bush economics and has essentially promised to spend his next four exploring the Obama school, all the while maintaining the 2006-08 tax cuts.
If you want to understand this budget, think of how you pay for 2011 spending at 2008 tax rates, one of which is far higher than the other. You can do that if you assume a rapid rate of future economic growth, but you can’t responsibly do that in an economy like this. We could very well be in the middle of a fundamental reordering of the system as we understand it, and Jim Flaherty and Stephen Harper are essentially betting on the next bubble. skippy stalin
Winning the next election seems to be worth whatever tiny fiscal probity the CPC might have had. All gone now.
Spend, spend, spend and then pretend that you have magic beans to get you out of the resulting mess. This is, eventually, a self correcting problem. As California and Illinois and New Jersey are finding as we speak.
Eventually, people don’t buy your notes. Eventually you have to pay stupid interest rates to finance your silly deficits. For the CPC it appears that so long as “eventually” is past the next election, it just does not matter. They have spent silly amounts of money since coming into office and they will continue to until they win a majority….and then?
Well it is possible they will sober up. But not likely. Because it is always easier to say “yes” than “no”. Always simpler to believe that the magic beans will save you.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:50 am
It could be worse think of a budget brought to you by Jack Latyon or Iggy.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:16 am
While the conservative base may have applauded if the government made big cuts – we all know how the MSM would have portrayed it. And the CPC needs to grow its base and include those on-the-fence liberals. I too am disappointed, but until the CPC get a majority it is all meaningless
March 9th, 2010 at 9:06 am
Flashback to Mulroney. (shudders!)
March 9th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Like Day and knife…
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=da9524b8-e7a2-42b0-bc7c-d38a02957d73
March 9th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
I got a call from a pollster the other day, working for the Tories:
Pollster: “Are you a supporter of the Conservative Party of Canada? (I have identified as such in the past)
Me: “I am a supporter of conservative principles – I just wonder whether Mr Harper actually has any.”
P: “Thank you for youir time.”
I am not sure of the purpose of a poll when you won’t even ask why a former supporter is no longer such…
March 9th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
dcardno; and further, the validity of the polled info. Sounds like another attempt at isolating the Boss from reality.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Only in politics is it a good idea, and legal, to double down when you’re already busted.
After all, it ain’t their money their gambling wildly with….or all the government dependents either.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
The way I see it, if there’s nothing that those idiots are willing to lose over, then there’s absolutely no reason to vote for them.
Period.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
don’t be such ninnies…it’s short term ‘pain’(read violation of hardcore con principles)for a potential long term gain….
get it through your heads that politics of this magnitude is the big leagues…never mind your bleating about alienating the ‘base’...the trick here is NOT to alienate the swing lib dipper votes…
hold your horses..keep your shirts on…keep voting the ticket and all will be well…
you sound like my kids sometimes…you always want all of it now….it simply doesn’t work that way in the big leagues..
o’ ye of little enduring faith…
March 9th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
These latest Rulers-over-Me have only the slightest of edges over their slavering competitors for My vote.
And that’s only because the ‘Others’ are worse…
March 10th, 2010 at 2:25 am
True. Sometimes, Obama can be such an inspiration.
March 10th, 2010 at 2:30 am
And, hey, it looks like Canada is about to save a few loonies, at least….
(...to throw away on something else, no doubt.)
March 10th, 2010 at 7:36 am
john begley – If I am going to get a Liberal government, I might as well vote for a Liberal, in the hopes that an actual conservative will come into office eventually. Voting for Harper teaches the CPC that delivering on what I want is unimportant – and that’s not in my long term interest. If they want my loyalty, they’ll have to show the same sort of loyalty to the principals they at one time espoused.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:45 am
Voting is a lot like getting raped by a bunch of marauding goons. You know you’re gonna get f####d, you’re just hoping to have a say over what hole they stick it in. Ain’t democracy great?
March 10th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
dcardno…
sorry…me no understand the point you were attempting to make..
March 10th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
?..it was pretty clear, John. (Feel free to correct me if I misstate you, DCardno)
By supporting CP policies in their current state, we’re enabling and rewarding the creators of this hybrid.
On the other hand, if you vote Liberal, possibly, maybe, if the weather be good, we might actually see a return to a true conservative Government…in the fullness of time.
Sorry, I can’t wait that long; nor can I afford (literally and figuratively) a return to Liberal fiscal policies, and social engineering.
This is why people buy Lotto tickets…by the millions.
March 11th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
john – DaninVan has it about right. I am not interested in your (or Mr Harper’s) excuses and realpolitik bullshit. I voted for a conservative party (or one that claimed to be such) because I wanted a conservative government. Mr Harper is governing like a Liberal, which is not what I wanted when I entered the ballot booth. If my choice is being governed by a Liberal under a Liberal banner and being governed by a Liberal under a “Conservative” banner, I’ll take the former, thanks, in the hopes that the figurative kick in the balls will teach Mr Harper that it is not possible to win elections by pretending to be Paul Martin. If that lesson sinks in, perhaps the “Conservative” Party of Canada will actually take conservatism seriously. If it doesn’t, then we will remain where we are now, with a choice of Liberal rule wearing either a blue or red tie.