Do you honestly think those are the only choices? How about the government spending only the money they have, not what they would like to have and having no deficits?
Juan, quite right, those aren’t the only choices.
Just like I said, and I was mocked for it by the con defense league. The Tories will go into deficit and abandon their non intervention ideology.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/537847
Avro, was there ever any doubt? There is a long standing love affair between conservatives and budget deficit, whether it is Reagan, Bush in USA or Mulroney, Harper here in Canada.
Harper inherited 10 billion $ surplus. As soon as he came to power, he frittered away most of it by giving tax cuts, mostly to the rich. Now that there is an economic downturn, he will borrow like a drunken sailor; like there is no tomorrow and we will be in deep hole in no time.
Paul Martin made a very good point the other day. He did not accept the excuse that since there is an economic downturn; the government has no choice but to go into deficit.
His point was that the government should have anticipated the economic downturn. Harper should have been ready for the unexpected and shod have kept a healthy surplus for just such times.
Liberals encountered many crises like this, there was 9/11, the dot com meltdown, 2001-2002 recession etc. But Liberals did not go into deficit, they kept running surplus, because there were ready for the unexpected. That is sound economic management.
Harper basically followed Bush (whom he holds in awe), if only partly. As soon as Bush came to power one of this first acts was to give huge tax cuts to the rich and run a huge deficit. Harper gave tax cuts to the rich, but he did not run a deficit. However, he did fritter away all the surplus, leaving absolutely no room for unforeseen downturns.
If Harper now runs a huge deficit, Canada will be paying for another generation for the misdeeds of the conservatives.
