Tuesday, September 04, 2007

No Kidding!

Every economist in the country made it very clear, that the craven political gesture of cutting the GST was a mistake. They went further and attempted to dispel the nonsense that the con's were telling the public, namely that the cut would stimulate increased consumer spending.

Well, here, we have some analysis of that decision, that shows how Flaherty and Harper were wrong.

It sounds like Harper is going to prorogue Parliament until October 17th. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that yet, but it's clear that even when they aren't being scrutinised by the opposition in the House, others are looking at their policies with a critical eye and in almost every case, the reviews are bad.

Gee, I wonder if another GST cut will be part of the New Government's, New Platform?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

KNB

I saw the report
i have one thing to say:
I challenge Dion and the rest of the left during
the next federal election
when ever it happens that
he will cancel the gst
cut during the campaign
not now!!

The next gst cut i hope it comes soon. Just look at this good
news!

This is last comment I'm going to make
on this.

Anonymous said...

KNB $$ 6.4 BILLION
so far first 3 months.

Karen said...

Did you read the article? There is no correlation.

While the Finance Department in its latest fiscal report said it now expects this year’s surplus will be greater than the $3 billion projected in the March budget, the Global Insight report says the GST isn’t contributing to that windfall.

They raised income tax to pay for the gst point cut.

Had the government not cut the GST, it would have collected $34.4 billion in GST revenues in the following 12 months instead of the $29 billion it pulled in, the report estimated.

Believe what you want John, I suspect you'd support Harper if he lied to seniors, oh wait, he did that. You'd support him if he lied about the environment we are leaving our children...oops, did that too. You'd support him if he participated in more patronage appointments than the Lib's...damn!

Suffice it to say, you'll support him no matter what.

Challenge Dion all you like. The time to make the change was before they enacted it. We have proof now, (not that we needed it), that it doesn't work. Time for Harper to give up the ghost on that promise of the extra point. Every economist from Vancouver to St. John's will come out against him.

Karen said...

KNB $$ 6.4 BILLION
so far first 3 months.


That's your money and mine. A conservative that is cool with government racking up our money, is not a conservative I recognise.

Oh I forgot, you support everything this government does, even if it compromises your beliefs/values/political contention.

Anonymous said...

KNB:

"That's your money and mine. A conservative that is cool with government racking up our money, is not a conservative I recognise."

My point exactly!
Its our money and we need
to cut even more tax's.
Oops i just said a bad word cutting tax's.;)

"Oh I forgot, you support everything this government does, even if it compromises your beliefs/values/political contention."

Thats not true and you know it there were a few posts that i put up
on your blog that i said
that i agree with you
remember? I guess not!!

I challenge you
to find one post that you have posted on your blog
that criticize Dion ever
since he became leader
(chuckles) of the Liberal
party. Don't give me he
is in opposition. You criticized Layton he is
in opposition too,and you
tell me that I follow
Harper blindly ha that's
a laugh.

Now what you will not find a criticism about Dion on your blog
from you,your the one who follows Dion blindly sorry to say!!

burlivespipe said...

"Oh I forgot, you support everything this government does, even if it compromises your beliefs/values/political contention."


C'mon KNB, you don't really think this jonny has any beliefs/values/political contention that he wouldn't sell down the river for last week's hamburger drippings, do you?
Dion has already proposed that the expected next GST cut should be cancelled and instead invested in helping to get children in Canada out of poverty. That may have been a leadership proposal, but the Liberals have some good plans waiting to be released come the election.

However, it likely won't sink below the tinfoil of some of your loyal blogger-buddies.

Anonymous said...

Burlivespipe about the
next GST cut this is what i said please read:

"I challenge Dion and the rest of the left during the next federal election when ever it happens that he will cancel the gst cut, during the campaign not now!!

Anonymous said...

Burlivespipe:

"C'mon KNB, you don't really think this jonny has any eliefs/values/political contention that he wouldn't sell down the river for last week's hamburger drippings, do you?"

Burli what a bunch of malarky.;)

Steve V said...

My favorite line:

"However, he noted that the Conservative government instead raised personal income taxes in its first budget."

A simple fact, that Canadians really don't understand, because the Conservatives did a superb job confusing the issue and making FALSE claims. I bet if you asked Flaherty today, he would still claim that he lowered income taxes, despite the obvious truth articulated by non-partisans.

Karen said...

John, I'll say this, on social issues, most, (you somehow exclude human rights), indeed you relent.

As to deriding Dion, you just did it here.

Burl...agreed. To be frank, I'd like to more about Dion's program, in all sector's, but I understand the reluctance. Harper steals everything.

That's not a dig, that's truth.

Anonymous said...

KNB we are simply not
going to agree on this.
So i will just take it in
stride.;)

Karen said...

Burl: However, it likely won't sink below the tinfoil of some of your loyal blogger-buddies

Indeed my friend.

Steve,...right on. How many people know that their taxes were raised? I suspect those people that it happened to, expected it. That is tragic in itself.

False claims...that is what they do well. How tragic is that?

I'm sorry to say this again, but our media just stinks. Those of us who read it know it, those of us who scan...my partner included, and he has a really good job and is incredibly bright, simply get the top notes.

We all have to get smarter, by that I mean care more.

Anonymous said...

KNB:

"Steve,...right on. How many people know that their taxes were raised? I suspect those people that it happened to, expected it. That is tragic in itself."

When i read this from the left i have to chuckle.:) I'm paying less tax's today then
i did under the Liberal
government. Its not because I'm making more
in Salary. So there you have it.

Our economy has never been any stronger!!
Oops i probably struck a
cord with this. The manufacture jobs that have been lost true.
No economy is full proof.

It will not sink
in the left thick scull,
because it goes against their grain you see.

The left unless they
have one of their own in
power then everything
must be bad you see.

The left has this believe system that the government knows best.
We the tax payer doesn't
know anything.

They want you to send your kids to day
care they don't want
us to have the cash and
decide for ourself.No
because we don't know
any better.

Don't forget they
also want the tax payer
to subsidize the rich
by giving them free health care.

I could see it coming the left going
crazy saying "you want
the U.S. system didn't
you see Micheal Moore's
movie sicko" No i don't
want that system i want
a mix system just like
they have in Europe!

If you are going to read please read everything and not cherry pick what you like from
it. Thank You !!

Scotian said...

KNB:

This comes as no surprise for as you rightly noted when this was enacted noted economists throughout the nation derided it as nothing more than a mirage, that it would not actually increase consumer spending let alone be beneficial to the lower end of the economic spectrum. When combined with the half percent increase in the income tax assessments of the lowest tax bracket the first budget of the CPC (passed with the aid of the BQ, same as with the second budget, got to love watching the Harper CPC relying on the separatists to pass a national budget each time) hurt those in most need of relief while providing relief to those who needed it the least those that spend heavily on GST taxable items, aka the well off/rich. That there are still so many CPC supporters in such denial of basic facts speaks not only to their partisan blinders but as you say the ineffectiveness of our national media in spotlighting the lies and deceptions of the Harper/CPC government. I blame that at least in part on the over centralization of the ownership of the major news media sources in the nation.

The CPC strategy relies on the misinformation and misleading of the voters, always has since the day the party was created in deception, betrayal and treachery. That they are so transparent about it is bad enough, that so many of our supposedly independent professional journalists, especially those claiming to be experienced political reporters are unable to recognize this and record it as it deserves (especially since they became the government, as it is the duty of journalists to always be skeptical of those in power regardless of the political affiliations involved) speaks to either (or worse both) a lack of competence on the part of the journalists and/or the involvement of the producers/editors/owners in suppressing this from public view. I honestly do not understand what is going on with our national media, but I do know that they have been derelict in their duty to the profession they claim to be so important to the well being of an open/democratic society.

Good catch KNB, and you are right, those like Johnny will never be able to get past their blind partisanship, which is why I commented in the past there is little point in trying to debate them. All one can do is point out their errors for the sake of lurkers reading, other than that it is a waste of time IMHO. A closed mind will not accept anything that contradicts its programming no matter how credible the information source, it will only believe that which comes from its partisanly approved sources alone. Indeed, that is why the myth of the liberal media bias/conspiracy is so important to CPCers, for if their supporters instead trusted sources other than those the partisans approve of why then they might actually wonder whether those trusted partisan sources are telling them the truth. By creating the liberal media myth they circumvent that rather dangerous to the programming tool.

We have seen where this leads by watching what happened to the GOP over the past quarter century. It went from being a party of varied types of conservatives from fiscal to free market to social to libertarians into the movement conservative dominated monstrosity we have watched with horror over the past decades, especially since the appointment of GWB as President. This is what these folks want to bring to us, and what worries me most about the silence in the national media on this is that this is not hidden nor hard to discern so who are they ignoring it? That does worry me a great deal.

burlivespipe said...

My take-home pay went down after Harper's first budget. No doubt ol' Jonny's paper route likely wasn't effected by the reality of the CON's RAISING taxes by .50...
That assertion by ol' Jonny about cancelling the GST cut has already been explained, but let's just flip this on its ear to something actually a reality -- I dare Harper to say he won't TAX INCOME TRUSTS at the next election --oops!
As to laying the current financial condition Canada seems to be enjoying at the feet of ol' Economics-degree-in-a-box, he hasn't been PM for more than 20 months and in fact the economy has been chirping along for 9 years now.
While you won't find any blue-koolaid drinking sap like your friend there saying the Liberals had any involvement of the good economic ride for 8 years (including 8-straight surplus budgets), they sure think ol' Harper can weave magic with but a flip of smirk and a backpedalling shrug.
However, you don't think he's proroguing parliament and lining up his cards for an election (now pretending that Afghanistan is a non-issue, he didn't support it in the first place etc) because all economic forecasters are pointing to a big US recession, do you? Hard to pitch him as a great economic whiz (which has already been scoffed at by real economists, you know, guys and gals who actually get jobs in the field) when all his big plans turn into idiot moves that 3rd world dictators have shelved as 'Too ridiculous'?

Steve V said...

"When i read this from the left i have to chuckle.:) I'm paying less tax's today then
i did under the Liberal
government."

Not according to the Canadian Taxpayers Association, hardly a "left" organ.

"Our economy has never been any stronger!!"

Did you send your thank-you to Paul Martin yet? Good grief, you clowns blame the Liberals for everything, then have the audacity to claim the economy as your own. Johnny, you spew mindless nonsense, that has no relationship with reality.

Anonymous said...

Steve:

"Did you send your thank-you to Paul Martin yet? Good grief, you clowns blame the Liberals for everything, then have the audacity to claim the economy as your own. Johnny, you spew mindless nonsense, that has no relationship with reality."

You and the rest of the left kept saying
in this government first year that we are
going to go back to big
deficits right? What a
big miscalculation of events.

Now talking about
clowns no matter what this government does in
your boneheaded mind its never good. Why because its a conservative thats why
bone head. The mindless nonsense is on your part sorry to say.

About name calling
you called me a clown
and i called you a bone head fair enough?

Karen said...

Scotian: This is what these folks want to bring to us, and what worries me most about the silence in the national media on this is that this is not hidden nor hard to discern so who are they ignoring it? That does worry me a great deal.

Me too. I've not yet found a way to battle it, that is why I blog. Mine is not a noticed blog, fair enough, but it's about getting the thought process out there. 2 readers or 200, if it's food for thought, that cannot be bad. I also write reporters. I'm always respectful, but ask the why's. Will it make a difference, I don't know. Their replies trend to sticking to their view, though I have had a few, thank you's in the best sense and a few, hmmm's as replies. Call me an optimist, lol.

Burl Of course your income was reduced, as was most Canadians. There is no debate here, as much as some would like to create one. Fact and flipping fiction aren't debatable, full stop. Interesting, but not real.

John, if you could argue points, with fact, substance, without adoration of Harper, you'd be taken more seriously. All that you counter with, is Harper is lord. You ignore facts. Attack the fact's man.

The fact that the economy is humming, has to do with the Liberal record...fact.

The reason there is now a question as to how this is going to go, is largely based on the US economy...fact. (According to Dodge)

If Canada, the gov't, stay's on the present course there is risk...fact.

Climb out of the conservative boat, your feet will touch the ground, I promise, and be objective.

I do not think that everything that the Lib's do is right. You have defended Harper through everything he railed about. That is ridiculous and shows a lack of an ability to weigh issues.

Anonymous said...

KNB What else could i say you people live in wonderland and I live in the real world.

No mater what this government does its wrong in your eyes and
no mater what your leader Dion and company
does or says is right.

I don't follow Harper
blindly like you do
with the Liberals.I
have already put up
post on that.

We do not agree i get it.

You know what I don't care that you people
don't take me seriously,because every time I need a good laugh i just do the rounds of the Lib Blogs
and see some of the posts that are there.

I take the comments on
the lib blogs with a
grain of salt. Sometimes a lot of grain and a lot of salt
chuckles!;)

Just amazing to me
how blinded some and
I mean some are to realty.But thats o.k. thats your problem not mine.;)

Anonymous said...

I mean some on the
left.