by Klaus Rohrich
November 18, 2004
If you’re looking for more proof that the people running the federal government are a bunch of incompetents, look no further than their budget projections. Fiscal 2004, which ended on March 31 of this year, yielded a surplus of $9.1 billion to Paul Martin’s treasury, instead of the $1.9 billion his Minister of Finance projected. Dyslexia notwithstanding, this year’s budget will yield a surplus of similar size.
For those who do not understand government finances, the word "surplus" means that the government took more of your money in taxes than it actually needed to fulfill its mandate. So if you had been able to keep some of your money instead of flushing it down the Ottawa toilet, you might have been able to pay down your mortgage or credit card or put a few dollars away for your old age.
as it stands, instead of returning any of it in the form of a tax cut, the Liberals will use that extra money to buy your votes in the upcoming election. Here’s how the scheme will work: The Minister of Finance, Ralph Goodale, will say that he can’t give any of the money back to taxpayers or use it to pay down the debt, as there are "spending commitments" that have to be met.
These will include the usual slurry of socialist initiatives that purport to solve all of society’s ills by throwing money at them. Thus the government is very likely to pour oodles of cash into programs such as the establishment of a national child care program (with a birth rate of 1.78 children per couple it won’t be long before there are no children), healthcare, Indian reserves, cities’ infrastructure improvements and so on.
There will also likely be yet another pay increase for members of Parliament, establishing bilingualism in alberta (or unilingualism in Quebec), and furthering the Kyoto accord, which no other nation on earth seems to care about. Then there will a rash of initiatives to combat global warming, despite the fact that there isn’t an iota of evidence that a) mankind is responsible and B) that we can do anything about it.
The fact that each and every election held in the past two decades has had smaller percentages of voters participating, speaks volumes about the despair and disgust that voters feel about government in Canada. So the Liberals are perfectly correct in assuming that they will gain re-election by purchasing our votes using our own hard-earned money.
The somnolence of the Canadian electorate is disconcerting in that each and every year the quality of politicians entering the fray seems to decline. I am beginning to think of the government of Canada in the same vein I think of the Mafia. Both organizations are in the relentless pursuit of money. Once they have it, it just seems to disappear into thin air with little or nothing to show for it. Both organizations profit from every endeavour that those in their sphere of influence undertake. Neither organization appears to have a conscience and both organizations will run roughshod over anyone standing in their way. The people in charge of both organizations are only accountable to others within the organization. The difference is that the Mafia has a set of standards, which sadly, seems to be lacking from government.
If the government of Canada really cared about its citizens it would create an economic climate whereby they may prosper instead of penalizing those who are successful. a good start might be to introduce a substantial tax cut. Tax cuts stimulate the economy in ways that government never can. For evidence look at the tax cuts initiated by John F. Kennedy in 1961, which brought about unprecedented economic growth and, curiously, increased government revenues. a little closer to home, we can look at the effect that the tax cuts instituted by the Harris government had in Ontario. almost immediately the province began an economic recovery and magically also increased government revenue.
If the government is squeamish about returning portions of our unused cash to us, then the very least they could do is use the money to pay down our whopping $746 billion debt. Currently our national debt amounts to approximately $46,000 per Canadian worker. The government is taking in on average about $24,000 per year from each Canadian worker. Instead of frittering the money away on yet larger government, it may be politic for them to try to live within their means and use the rest to get rid of debt.
In our self-righteous conceit about being superior to americans we think of them as unsophisticated dolts. Many of us refer to their president as a stupid moron. But the truth is the stupid moron seems to have a better understanding of economics than our oh-so-sophisticated Liberals.