So the first salvo of ludicrous and unimplementable promises was fired by the Conservative party yesterday, when they announced a plank in their platform that called for the cutting of the GST to 6% immediately and dropping it to 5% in 5 years. Do I believe they will do this? Who knows, this is a political campaign, it is as valid as any promise you hear, I guess.
Now my understanding is that the Conservatives believe the government is taking in too much money and that regular Canadians deserve money put back in their pockets, I applaud that point of view, but I also look at the big picture and worry. Canada is still a MASSIVE debtor nation, not as big as our friends to the south, but still, to fill the hole that the Governments of the 70’s and 80’s created for us, cutting DOWN on income is not really the answer.
As we debtors know, the faster you pay off your debt, the SOONER you get to enjoy life and then figure out how you can alter your income. Let’s repeat that, get OUT of DEBT FIRST.
Here is a good set of questions for any Political Huckster that appears on your doorstep:
- What is the size of the Canadian DEBT?
- When do you think your party can retire this debt? What year? What century?!?!?
- How will you do this, without cutting services any more than current levels?
I am not espousing any point of view here, other than the concerned Canadian who wants to think of his Country as a HAVE country without DEBT!
I completely agree. The fact of the matter is that politicians of any party are full of shite. The benchmark for responsible government should be Zero debt or strategic debt for a one time necessity/bargain. (Yes bargain. Cash is king and when your the government you have the ability of a shrewd businessman: if you pay in cash you can do very well).
Tax cuts should occur when politicians are so sanctioned that all they can do is be shrewd. We don’t need any smooth talker spending our bucks and manufacturng prosperity. No thanks.
If we are missing any charismatic politicians in our fiscally responsible system, then we’ll just tune in to any number of countries that are still screwed up get our fix and return to our JOBS because we actually can.
My personal opinion is any tax-cut is a good tax cut. Personally, I think cutting income taxes are better.
I think Canadians are over taxed. I don’t buy the argument that the surplus will be used to pay down debt, which will be good. Guess what? Governments love to spend money and if they get a lot of revenue, they won’t be responsible. They will just spend it in boondoggles, pork-barrel spending etc.
Even with the recent massive spending and modest tax cuts, the federal government will still have a big surplus and debt to GDP will fall to 25% by 2015 (it is currently at 38%.
And one more thing. Cutting taxes is good, because it results in more tax revenue down the road, because there will be more economic growth.
So, bring on the tax cuts. We could use more of them.