Here come the deficits

[Avro]

I heard him today on the radio talking about how he had a mandate from the Canadian people! He didn't win anywhere near enough popularity to "have a mandate." Anyone in his position that would claim such a thing obviously has a secret agenda. I should think selling off bits of Canada to his friends is just a small part of it.

Well the con defense league will now say he doesn't have a mandate to keep a simple promise like not running deficits or the even lamer excuse of "we didn't see this economic crisis coming" BS. They had the nerve to slam Dion on fears of deficit spending when they themselves are now going to do just that. Perhaps after they sell the CN tower in a poor real estate market they will start selling off our parks as well.:roll:

It's Mike Harris all over again, you know, the guy that benefited from the Rae policies and still couldn't balance the books in good economic times as government spending ballooned out of control as it is under Harper while cons still prance around thinking Tories are good money managers.

Morons:roll:

 

[Zzarchov]

Which would you rather have? A deficit or the CN Tower??? You libs will never be satisfied...

If you have to sell things its still a deficit.

Its like saying "I live within my means, to make rent this month I sold my car, im responsible"


They won't have a lack of cash, they will still have a deficit. Instead of lowering their Cash Account on the books they just lower another Asset instead. They will sell it at under value too by abusing the "original purchase value" its recorded at.

Its akin to selling off the entirity of the Prairies and North for $545,704 CAD and claiming you balanced the books by making profit.

 

[#juan]

The CN Tower is not entirely real estate. It's primary function is a telecommunications center. That it is a popular tourist destination is merely a bonus. Now the dopey conservatives want to sell it off and the communications clients will have to go begging to whoever buys it. I don't believe Harper has a mandate to sell off government assets. The Tower is an important piece of infrastructure that should not be sold. If Harper wants to avoid deficits he should take back some of the corporate tax cut gifts he gave away to his friends. It is not Canada's fault that Harper might find himself in a deficit, it is Harper's fault. Harper inherited a 10 billion dollar surplus.

 

[#juan]

The Canadian electorate once gave the conservatives a very clear picture of what they thought of deficit financing of government. The P.C.s went from a majority to just a seat or two in parliament. I think they can do that again if Harper starts dealing in deficits. We just have to remember that the first 30 billion dollars of taxes collected every year goes to pay off the interest on Mulroney's debt.

 

[Tonington]

Here's a thought...I don't mind paying an extra penny for my coffee, like I did three years ago. Making future generations pay for my penny with interest though...not cool.

 

[Colpy]

The CN Tower is not entirely real estate. It's primary function is a telecommunications center. That it is a popular tourist destination is merely a bonus. Now the dopey conservatives want to sell it off and the communications clients will have to go begging to whoever buys it. I don't believe Harper has a mandate to sell off government assets. The Tower is an important piece of infrastructure that should not be sold. If Harper wants to avoid deficits he should take back some of the corporate tax cut gifts he gave away to his friends. It is not Canada's fault that Harper might find himself in a deficit, it is Harper's fault. Harper inherited a 10 billion dollar surplus.

Good point about the CN Tower.....I just hadn't considered its practical use.

Re-introducing corporate taxes while the economy is shrinking......and they are considering huge bailouts.....just doesn't make sense.

Ah.....Harper was elected on a policy of cutting the GST, which he did. He was also elected on a policy of increased military expenditure......which he did. And he has not approached deficit until the world economy tanked.....not his fault. That is obvious when you see every industrialized nation in the same hole.....Canada much less so than others.

In my own defense, I'd rather have kept the GST and paid down debt.........but I wasn't elected.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

And he has not approached deficit until the world economy tanked.....not his fault.

Sorry Colpy, entirely Harper’s fault. Liberals had plenty of unforeseen disasters to cope with. There was 9/11, followed by the dot com crash. Then we had the 2001-2002 recession (the first Bush recession), when the stock market tanked, went from 11,000 to 7000.

However, liberals ran surplus through all that, because of prudent fiscal management. Because of his tax cuts mainly for the rich (GST cut benefits the rich disproportionately, income tax cut benefits all the population equally), Harper frittered away all the surplus and was essentially living from paycheck to paycheck.

Well, we all know what happens to a family which lives on paycheck to paycheck. Any unforeseen disaster and the family is in big trouble. The same thing happened here. The fact that Harper finds himself running a deficit denotes the lack of foresight, the lack of proper planning on his part.

Unforeseen disasters, unforeseen recessions are quite commonplace in the field of economy, a prudent politician makes allowances for the unforeseen, and does not start whining the moment something unforeseen happens.

So yes, entirely Harper’s fault.

 

[Zzarchov]

I'd agree about the "unforseen" bit.

Its part of first year economics course about the unforseen. Preparing for unforseen occurrances is the whole point of someone managing the economy.


If Harper wasn't prepared for a disaster then what the hell good is he? Anyone can manage the obvious, its managing the obvious while preparing for emergencies and disasters.

Its like hiring police but only having them deal with forseeable and predicatable problems and washing their hands of dealing with Emergencies.

 

[GreenFish66]

Here come the deficits ..Here come the Bail outs!...Hope it all pays off for the ones who need it most!..The people!..Keep bailing out the criminals ..at the expense of the victums. That's the economic model we seem to be running off..Nowadays..!

 

[#juan]

Good point about the CN Tower.....I just hadn't considered its practical use.

Re-introducing corporate taxes while the economy is shrinking......and they are considering huge bailouts.....just doesn't make sense.

Ah.....Harper was elected on a policy of cutting the GST, which he did. He was also elected on a policy of increased military expenditure......which he did. And he has not approached deficit until the world economy tanked.....not his fault. That is obvious when you see every industrialized nation in the same hole.....Canada much less so than others.

In my own defense, I'd rather have kept the GST and paid down debt.........but I wasn't elected.

Well, the fifty billion in corporate tax cuts was a bailout of sorts wasn't it?. The world economic meltdown was predicted for a long time. It shouldn't have been a surprise. Harper piddled away a ten billion dollar surplus and there was no excuse for that.
Canada is a resource based economy so we should be doing better than most.
Putting back the GST reduction would probably make Harper some brownie points and also help stave off a deficit.

 

[Socrates the Greek]

Which would you rather have? A deficit or the CN Tower??? You libs will never be satisfied...

Hey Good day Risus, the Con honey moon is over, when you see a Government starting to sell off Canadian assets to pay for promises that could not be delivered.......my friend keep a close eye on your RRSP s keep a close watch on your wallet..... Keep a close watch of your retirement funs. Even though the economic meltdown is not caused by Harper, you will see that Harper will sell Canada to get cash to pay for empty promises.. You have seen nothing yet....
I am not an alarmist but I keep a close watch on Harper he is masquerading as a good apple when in fact he is a bad orange.....

 

[scratch]

That has been said all along but no-ne caughton ot bothered until after the election.

 

[Tonington]

In my own defense, I'd rather have kept the GST and paid down debt.........but I wasn't elected.

Yup. Or have the extra cash to do things like stimulus. All sorts of things. But taxes cuts do buy votes

 

[scratch]

And worsen our lives.

 

[Scott Free]

I agree partially.....

My question is: Why is the gov't into real estate in the first place? Outside of the necessary gov't buildings........of which the CN Tower is not one.......it is beyond the scope of their accepted role in society........and is an invitation to corruption and cronyism.

Government seems to think it owns things and that is wrong thinking IMO. It certainly makes sense to me that there should be community property owned by the commons and it should be protected as such; for example parks, oil fields.

I don't like deficit.....nor does the Harper gov't. But once you are in recession and have cut the idiot wastes of money (such as Arts programs), expendature is necessary to create jobs and provide a safety net for the people......advantage can be gained by using these expenditures to rebuild and improve infrastructure.

Sure, but neoliberalism would have that infrastructure auctioned off. That is something I strongly disagree with. If government isn't going to look after common interest then we might as well string the crooks up right now - actually, I would like to anyway.

Things change. Sometimes policies have to follow events. We elect a gov't, not a platform.

I agree but Harper seems to think we elected him because he is a wrong thinking neocon. It is his policies he is forcing since those policies are damaging to the country.

If you want to see a disaster in the making, take a look at RB Bennett, who refused to spend to help the people during the dirty thirties........and came close to fermenting a perfectly justifiable rebellion.

Agreed but isn't that what Harper is talking about? He just cancelled a national portrait museum claiming it wasn't fiscally responsible.

BTW, I can't stand Mulroney.......but he left the Liberals two things that were invaluable in defeating the deficit.........NAFTA and the GST. It ain't hard to get out of debt when your revenues are sky-rocketing, thanks to your predessesor.

NAFTA has been a complete disaster. Now we are making an even worse agreement with Europe.