Spending Like Drunken Cons, Part 2: Conservatives Miss Their Debt Projections Yet Again
I have only two posts planned on the 2012 budget. Unlike the professional media, I am not a trained poodle, and I will not degrade myself through weeks of high-pitched yapping in exchange for the privilege of being invited into the annual budget lockup. The legitimacy of the government is in question because of its refusal to seriously investigate electoral fraud allegations, and until those allegations are addressed, the budget is not a priority. That being said…
Last year, during the elections, I pointed out that despite running on the principle that leftist parties are awful tax-and-spend liberals with no fiscal conscience whatsoever, the Conservative Party of Canada wasn’t exactly a prudent budget planner. This year we see more evidence of that. As you can see from the following table, since 2007, every Conservative budget has started off in a projected position worse than they predicted they would be in, the year before. I guess that’s what happens when you cut taxes like mad, eh?
Every year, the government’s budget estimates where we will be in the course of the present year, but then it projects where we will be in subsequent years, given what it claims are the long-term ramifications of the new spending and cuts in the present budget. As you can see, despite the billions of dollars in cutbacks the Conservatives claim will restore us to fiscal sanity, this year we’re still coming in below where they said we would be last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. In short, despite all the new cuts, they’ve still missed the targets they said we were set to meet in previous years.
Now, it could be worse. We’re missing our project targets for next year by a lot less than we did the last couple of years. But the fact remains. This Conservative government inherited a strong budget surplus from the Liberals that it claims don’t respect fiscal sanity. In six years it has taken that budget surplus, turned it into a record budget deficit, slashed taxes to record lows, and is now attempting to claw its way back into balanced budget territory by slashing away at programs that Canadians depend upon to live decent and comfortable lives. Programs like healthcare, Old Age Security, Veterans Affairs, and environmental protection.
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kootcoot
They aren’t gutting environmental protection for budgetary purposes, but to satisfy Harper’s war on the environment to hasten our evolution into a Petro-State.
Sixth Estate
Evolution? We’ll have none of that talk in this country, sir!
Sam Gunsch
On that Evolution thingy… some recent explication by Nikiforuk, at least to me, re possible sources for the operating system code in hard-drive of Canada’s current Borg CEO.
“Understanding Harper’s Evangelical Mission
Signs mount that Canada’s government is beholden to a religious agenda averse to science and rational debate.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 26 Mar 2012, TheTyee.ca ”
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/03/26/Harper-Evangelical-Mission/
“Understanding Harper’s Evangelical Mission
Signs mount that Canada’s government is beholden to a religious agenda averse to science and rational debate.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 26 Mar 2012, TheTyee.ca “
Sixth Estate
Thanks, Sam.
I’m not sure what to think of allegations that Harper is personally religious. Certainly he’s not Christian. Whether he’s not really religious at all and just strategizes that the religious right is a useful support base, or whether his religious belief is that God wants him to acquire as much personal political power as possible, I couldn’t say, though I suspect the former over the latter.
That said, we need to think more seriously about how theocracy actually works. There’s certainly a small army of Trinity Western graduates assembling in ministerial offices, and they’re not there because this government thinks religion is just a good motivating hoax for a bunch of dumb prairie hicks, either.
Holly Stick
Guess who just reared his ugly head with an opinion on what the budget means. He may even have some valid points, but Bruce Carson leaves a heck of a lot out:
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2012/03/30/bruce-carson-new-federalism-features-prominently-in-budget-2012/
I agree with you on not being able to tell if Harper believes his rather extremist religion or just finds it useful. But if he acts like he believes it, the results may be the same.
Sixth Estate
Where the hell did he come from?
Literally, I’m speechless. Not from what he says, but from the fact that he’s back on the public stage.
Sixth Estate
Carson is, however, still an idiot. If this government was really serious about securing the border, how would the prime minister react to one of his ministers diverting money out of the border security fund to create a private slush fund for his riding? Yeah, I thought as much.