Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Budget to possibly destroy country

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 10:49pm - 17 Comments

Unreformed cowboy Myron Thompson seems dispirited.

“The big question is where is this money going and what exactly is it going to accomplish?” Thompson said Tuesday before getting a chance to analyze the nuts and bolts of the Conservative budget. ”And if it’s going into these socialist programs that the Jack Laytons love so much and the Gilles Duceppes, I fear for the country.”

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  • http://www.canadianrosebud.blogspot.com dan in van

    Well, so much for those ‘Senator Hanger’ and ‘Governor General Thompson’ bumperstickers…

  • http://scottdiatribe.canflag.com Scott Tribe

    I was actually not exactly pleased with the strategy Ignatieff and the Liberals went with on this – I think if they weren’t going to bring the government down, they could have been a lot tougher in their calls for amendments.

    But I have to admit, after seeing all these Conservatives in angst and grief and anger, (and being utterly amused to no end at all the wailing and grinding and gnashing of teeth out there in that corner), maybe the Iggy strategists were on to something, letting Harper wear this.

    • Jenn

      No, you were right the first time. I see no reason why an amendment regarding pay equity and EI eligibility improvements couldn’t have been inserted there along with the reporting thing. Harper would still wear the budget.

      And I still don’t see how a tax cut for working people helps anybody but those of us getting said tax cuts. I plan to put mine into my RRSPs, really. Yes, it might stave off a an extra week before I’m consigned to the Public Trustee, but it doesn’t do anything for us NOW. Nor will it help stimulate the economy when everyone else is paying off some of their credit card debt with it.

      Since the EI changes wouldn’t cost as much as the tax cuts will (and the pay equity thing will cost next to nothing at all), I think it would have been hilarious to put Harper in the position of insisting on a higher deficit than Ignatieff. Not to mention the help would go to those actually laid off and needing the help.

      • Critical Reasoning

        I agree with you about the EI eligibility improvements, but I should point out that tax cuts to working people really do have a stimulus effect on the economy, so they benefit all Canadians, not just those who are employed. If some choose to use it to pay down their credit card debt, that’s not a bad thing – the economy benefits when people stay solvent. The last thing we need is more bad loans freezing up the credit markets.

    • http://unambig.wordpress.com Raphael Alexander

      God, nothing is good enough for the Liberals, is it? You have the most spendthrift budget since Hitler was bombing Britain, and you want more “amendments”.

      Brutal.

      At least lyin’ Dalton McGuinty said he won’t look a “gift horse in the mouth”.

      • http://scottdiatribe.canflag.com Scott Tribe

        The problem is Raphael, that the Conservatives arent used to doing a Buget like this.. so they took a bit of a scattergun approach to it… in a desperate attempt to send enough money to enough sectors to stave off defeat.

        If you’re going to do a Keynesian Budget, the folks who are used to doing or believe in Keynesian economics are the ones to properly be the ones to do so – not folks who are ideologically against it but are doing so in a deathbed conversion like way.

  • http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

    Hmm, I was rather down on the budget, but anything that makes Myron Thompson cry can’t be all bad.

  • Sisyphus

    Well , lets cheer the chummies up even more :

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/davos/7856636.stm

  • Sisyphus

    I’m assuming that if the moderators have a problem with it he/she/they will let me know.

    And I will go along with their wishes. It’s their shop.

    But if it irritates some congenitally cranky chuckie , so be it.

    • Critical Reasoning

      Is “chuckie” a word you coined to describe conservative types?

  • George Pringle

    The whole concept of spending our way out of this downturn is an experiment, not the fact that everyone has seemed to accept as a divine economic truth. I hope it works but as the problem started with the incompetent American economic and regulatory systems, the only real solution lies down South. We need them to buy our goods, period.

    The question is whether Obama is just another smooth tongued snake oil salesman or he has any hope of actually fighting and beating the ingrained corrupt American political old boy system. I doubt it, as those old boy protectionist Democrats are as part of the incompetence as the old boy Republicans.

    Already we have seen the negative effect of an Obama Presidency on Canada. He owes his election to the unions and business protectionist lobbies and no matter how many lefty Canadians gush all over Obama, he will screw us to reward them.

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