Budget

[Goober]

Guess it did not interest those that are left of center.

As to the OAS - Should have reduced the clawback level.

As to MP's Pensions - Nothing till the next election - BullShxt

Tory budget slashes $5.2-billion in spending, gives boomers a pass on OAS - The Globe and Mail

Tory budget axes 19,200 public-service jobs - The Globe and Mail

Military, aid and diplomacy face deep cuts in Tory budget - The Globe and Mail

Budget 2012: Canadians under 54 will wait longer to get old age pensions | News | National Post

CBC takes a 10% cut in the Canada Budget 2012 | News | National Post

 

[taxslave]

Baby steps in the right (pun intended) direction.

 

[Goober]

Baby steps in the right (pun intended) direction.

Why did they not reduce the clawback for OAS?

I think it starts at 65 K and full clawback at around 100 K.

Seems to be an easy solution - OAS is paid from general revenues - so it is then fair to lower the clawback and increase the amounts for those that are at the lowest income levels.

 

[damngrumpy]

I suspected the age limit would go up to sixty seven and that is not so bad I guess in the
big picture. The job cuts in the service will have some adverse effects in the long run.
People don't realize how things really work. The older workers will go likely with some
buy outs and that means the experience and economic savings will be under stress.
The only alternative is to hire the older workers back on contracts and those costs are
not really reflected in the whole picture.
There won't be enough support staff to get the job done and at some point they will need
to hire people and train them to do the jobs required. By that time the Tories will be elected
again and like Brian Mulroney the new government will do what they did today and the
process will repeat itself.
I think over all this is a budget that is not as bad as most people believed it would be and
the politics and promotion so far has worked. Make the rumor mill most drastic and come
in with something less. Works for a while but in the long term it can bite you.
There is one thing that proved interesting today, a poll that came out today suggests that
forty percent of Canadians say the Conservatives are doing an OK job with the economy.
One year after the election and we are at the same numbers for the Tories on this and
other issues. They have not increased their support and in some cases lost some ground.
The conservatives have peaked it appears and that means they could be vulnerable in the
next election.

 

[Spade]

Goober, the raising of the age to 67 to qualify for a pension (as of 2023) flies in the face of analysts who maintain that the current level of funding is sustainable.
Cuts to the CBC are ideological.
No reference to possible over spending on F-35s.
Reducing the environmental department when climate change is a danger lacks vision.
More prison costs to be borne by provinces?
No increase in GST to help alleviate the deficit.

 

[Tonington]

As to the OAS - Should have reduced the clawback level.

Yep. It's a fallacy that an increasing life expectancy, an average, is due to a shift in the entire distribution of life expectancy. Class matters, as well as other demographic factors, and can make the difference between a 65 year life expectancy, and an 85 year life expectancy.

Think of it this way, if we relied on averages for everything, then we might as well get rid of GIS as well, as the average annual retiree income is well above the cut-off for GIS.

 

[Goober]

Goober, the raising of the age to 67 to qualify for a pension (as of 2023) flies in the face of analysts who maintain that the current level of funding is sustainable.
Cuts to the CBC are ideological.
No reference to possible over spending on F-35s.
Reducing the environmental department when climate change is a danger lacks vision.
More prison costs to be borne by provinces?
No increase in GST to help alleviate the deficit.

My Friend I agree with all of what you posted. This budget is crap. The OAS penalizes those low income, ill etc that need that age for retiring.

Public Service pensions - on the contribution side should rise faster.

 

[mentalfloss]

Drummond was saying they could save $100 Billion by getting rid of useless tax credits.

 

[Goober]

Drummond was saying they could save $100 Billion by getting rid of useless tax credits.

Now what does a rich man call useless? A link would be nice?

 

[mentalfloss]

Now what does a rich man call useless? A link would be nice?

You have to watch the power and politics set.

I've actually been trying to search for a link all day and it's very curious that CBC hasn't posted an official article yet.

It was a great critique of some budget mistakes every government makes.

My favourite is one that's a bit more relegated to conservatives where they think first and foremost about the $$$ and not the value of the expenditure that they are deciding to cut or endorse.

Here's a link to the vid, but you might have to search it out.. CBC.ca Player

 

[Liberalman]

Canada Federal Budget details 2012

http://www.budget.gc.ca/2012/plan/toc-tdm-eng.html

Close to 500 pages

 

[Cannuck]

Drummond was saying they could save $100 Billion by getting rid of useless tax credits.

Actually, what he was saying is that there is 100 billion in tax credits that should be looked at. I don't think he said they are all useless and should be dumped. We need a few hundred Drummonds in Ottawa.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

The $100 tax credit in the budget was on Power and Politics with Evan Solomon. The CBC has a crappy search engine.

Deductions/credits can be good, but not targetted credits to small groups as the result is usually feeble. It is payback. We all pay for them but the benefits are too localised. It also makes the tax code too complicated and that benefits the rich.

 

[JLM]

Guess it did not interest those that are left of center.

As to the OAS - Should have reduced the clawback level.

As to MP's Pensions - Nothing till the next election - BullShxt

Tory budget slashes $5.2-billion in spending, gives boomers a pass on OAS - The Globe and Mail

Tory budget axes 19,200 public-service jobs - The Globe and Mail

Military, aid and diplomacy face deep cuts in Tory budget - The Globe and Mail

Budget 2012: Canadians under 54 will wait longer to get old age pensions | News | National Post

CBC takes a 10% cut in the Canada Budget 2012 | News | National Post

The only fault I can find with it, is there doesn't appear to be any shortening of the trough in Ottawa. I think politicians' pensions should be set at 2% of maximum earnings X number of years served. You are never going to find a budget that suits everyone. Cuts are obviously badly needed and when you have cuts somebody is going to get hurt and that's not bad as long as it's those who can fend for themselves. Interest on the debt is killing us and it's going to get worse as interest rates increase.

 

[Cannuck]

Deductions/credits can be good, but not targetted credits to small groups as the result is usually feeble..

Actually, it's just the opposite. Targeting tax credits to where they are needed is by far the better option

 

[tibear]

The thing that gets me is why do we have OAS at all???????
Are we like a board game where if you make it to 65 you get extra money that others don't get?
What's the difference between a 64 year old and 65 year old? Why does one get money for nothing and not the other?

As a Canadian, I say get rid of OAS and take that money and give it to the people that need it. Put it into the Social Assistance program so that the money can be distributed to the most needy and not JUST the elderly that may or may not need it.

When OAS as first instituted the average lifespan of a Canadian was something like 72 years now it is about 82. At a bare minimum we should raise the age of eligibility back to 7 years shorter than the average lifespan of Canadians or 75 years of age.

Let's look at the WHOLE picture and NOT just the elderly that are poor but everyone that is poor.

As for people working longer in life, some may but many won't. The average Canadian retires before 65 now so how is that going to change?

 

[Goober]

Actually, what he was saying is that there is 100 billion in tax credits that should be looked at. I don't think he said they are all useless and should be dumped. We need a few hundred Drummonds in Ottawa.

They should be expending dollars to upgrade their main frames - at one time a few years back - approx 8 or 9 different departments provided some support for first nations - It was impossible to track and identify overlapping.
The same applies to other depts - Overlapping and duplication.

They should be streamlining benefits - OAS should have a lower clawback -GST raised.

 

[Cannuck]

They should be expending dollars to upgrade their main frames - at one time a few years back - approx 8 or 9 different departments provided some support for first nations - It was impossible to track and identify overlapping.
The same applies to other depts - Overlapping and duplication.

They should be streamlining benefits - OAS should have a lower clawback -GST raised.

What does that have to do with tax credits?

 

[Goober]

What does that have to do with tax credits?

Simple enough - find out how effective they are.

 

[Cannuck]

Simple enough - find out how effective they are.

umm...ya!