Saturday, September 20, 2008

Liberals — Spending Money That's Not Theirs

Federal Liberals are on a spending spree. Their election promises top $80-billion and it hasn't even been two weeks since the campaign began. But where will the money come from? The "green shaft" was supposed to only amount to $15.4B and there's nothing in it about "infrastructure bank" or any other spendings which the Liberals have recently announced. So where will they get the cash?

Since Dion has no intention to use the Bank of Canada for infrastructure projects, there are only two options left: raise the taxes or borrow the money. Both would turn out to be quite costly to an average taxpayer. Even if the Liberals make no more costly promises for the rest of the campaign, a tax hike to pay for what's been promised already, will cost an average of $3600 per taxpayer. If they borrow the money - that will be even worse.

Borrowing $80 billion, even over the course of several years will nullify all the efforts to reduce the Federal debt that were made during the last decade by Chretien's, Martin's and Harper's governments. The interest alone (at least $4 Billion) would plunge Canada into deficit - and guess who is going to pick up the cost. And, since the principal will have to be repaid sooner or later - we're talking about the same $3600 per taxpayer merely being passed to the next generation. I doubt they'll thank us for that kind of legacy.

So let's not risk it. Let's make sure we don't trust the nation's finances to a bunch of left-wing intellectuals who master in spending money that's not theirs.

4 comments:

Mrs. Ashe said...

I hope Canadians WAKE UP and realize where all this money is going to come from, eventually - MY POCKET and YOURS! with usurious interest, to boot, and probably selling our mortal souls and first-born children and grandchildren to our hideous enemies at the same time ...

Unknown said...

what would they do with all that money? we will be in big trouble later on IF this article is true. do you have any real proof that they have no plan or that they are going to borrow our money, if you do please tell me because some people just say stuff to put down other people like all the t.v ads, maybe your right about this but i think that they would have a plan or something for 80 billion dollers.

Leonard said...

I gave a link to the National Post article which does the math. Of course the $80B would be spent over the course of a few years (the infrastructure project has a 10-year span). Still - an expense is an expense, no matter if you pay it in installments or if you put all the money at once.

And, since what the Liberals used to view as their "safety cushion" has already been returned to the taxpayers - the Liberals will have no choice but raising the taxes or borrowing the money (boosting Federal debt) to raise the funds they need for their spending programs.

In the end the $80B in increased spending will result in $80B taken from taxpayers' pockets or $80B added to Federal debt (which will incur higher interest payments and more money taken out of taxpayers' pockets).

So far the only major party with reasonable campaign is the Conservative party - moderate spending initiatives and modest tax cuts which could be accommodated by existing budget surpluses.

Upresser said...

Why is it that service cuts and tax hikes are always the domain of the people? I am a 36 yr old high school graduate, that was refused OSAP because my parents had too good an income (niether ever had higher education). At 18, I ended up working for a living instead of being able to further my education. Luckily I found a job as a warehouse manager and after a couple of years is was making $18/hr. Due to the recession of the early 90s the company I worked for shut down and I was without a job. Now 16 yrs later I have never been paid more than $14/hr.
Why is it that our MPPs, Senators, Civil Service workers never have to take cuts to thier wages, pensions, benefits? Across the board "we the people" have to take cuts after cuts, suffer service reductions, and less and less of what we contribute (more and more) to (UI/EI - CPP - OHIP); when MPPs and Senators continue to give them selves pay raises, higher pensions for less time served; and in the case of civil services - simply strike when they want more money for doing less. Why can't they take the cuts? I think a full 50% reduction of all parliamentary staff wages and/or pensions is in order. Hit them in the pocket book for a change, let them feel the bite of thier own stagnation and let them worry about what will happen when they retire. Maybe then they will be "inspired" to make a change for the better of all Canadians, not just themselves.