Confirmed Price Tag For Cabron Tax: $15,000,000,000

Finally the Liberals themselves have announced how much is their carbon tax going to cost. And when those guys promise to increase taxes - we can believe them for a change.

In the next two weeks Dion plans to unveil his policy -- aimed at curtailing greenhouse gas emissions -- which one Liberal source said would add C$15 billion ($14.7 billion) in taxes on energy, with the idea that some or all of it would be returned via corporate and personal tax cuts.

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Most likely some, rather than all. Dion has already made over $60B in spending promises. There's no way he could keep even a tiny share of those promises without raising taxes. And then of course there's this:

The Liberals have said the price of gasoline would not rise since it already has a federal excise tax of 10 Canadian cents a liter (37 U.S. cents per U.S. gallon).

However, fuel oil, natural gas and some electricity would also be taxed, and the tax on diesel, used by transport trucks, would probably have to be nearly tripled to match the tax on the carbon content of gasoline.

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How many truckers will go out of business once the price of diesel fuel jumps up from $1.55 a liter to about $2.00 or even higher? How is Dion's future government planning to replace all the lost income tax revenues? What other alternatives are Dion & Co going to consider except postponing or cancelling the proposed income tax cuts?

So even if we do get a slight reduction in personal income tax - it will be supplemented by a sharp increase in the GST and other excise taxes - which Dion will desperately need to compensate for the tax revenue lost due to higher unemployment and due to lower consumer spending. (Even those who keep their jobs will earn less and their heating and grocery bills will be considerably higher.) And then Dion has his spending promises on top of all that... Do you still hope there will be any room for tax cuts in the Liberal tax-and-spend budget?

The only positive thing about this whole story is once the Liberals start showing the actual numbers for the proposed income tax cuts (even if it's obvious that none of them could ever be implemented) - the Conservatives will try to match them. And, since the government doesn't have a carbon tax on the agenda (neither do they plan "revisiting" the GST cut), the Conservatives will have no choice but to cut wasteful spendings to remain competitive during the campaign. A $15B spending cut followed by $15B income tax cut - that will make much more sense.