September 2019
The latest promise to come out the Justin Trudeau election machine is to promise deficit spending of $20 billion over the next four years, along with disparaging Conservatives like Andrew Scheer and Doug Ford for wanting to cut spending. Oy vey!
Trudeau must really think Canadians are a bunch of schmucks, which we certainly are to a certain extent.
Here’s a simple test, a two part test actually: when you are managing your own household finances and you find that you have maxed out your credit card, do you cut back on your spending or do you get another credit card so you can continue spending?
The second part of the test is this: if you said “cut your spending” in answer to part one, how can you be OK with governments at all levels doing the opposite?
Doug Ford has been demonized for actually trying to make some cuts, and Scheer is being demonized for proposing cuts. I fail to understand why people can’t accept the fact that we have been living beyond our means as a province and a country for far too long and cuts in spending do need to made eventually. Progressives seem to like demonizing anyone who doesn’t buy into their climate hysteria, claiming that climate change “deniers” are sentencing our children and grandchildren to an environmental apocalypse, yet they don’t seem to care about the financial apocalypse coming their way.
The current Ontario debt is around $350 billion, with monthly interest payments around $13 million, making it the fourth largest budget line for the Ontario government.
The current federal government debt is around $670 billion, with monthly interest payments around $30 billion.
Does anyone want to calculate how many federal and provincial government programs could not only be maintained, but expanded if we weren’t paying so much money just in INTEREST?
How much more money could the federal government send to the provinces to help maintain their services?
How many more MRIs could be bought; how many more autism programs could be offered; how many more people with intellectual challenges could receive the services they need; how many more hospital and senior resident beds could be added?
How much of an increase to CPP, OAS and GIS benefits could retirees see, some of whom don’t have any other retirement income to rely on?
How many schools could expand their educational programs or how many students could receive government grants for their post-secondary education? How about low-cost loans or even student-debt forgiveness?
How many more teachers, early childhood educators and educational support workers could not only be retained, but hired?
How many low-income Canadians could actually receive meaningful tax relief without compromising government programs?
How many more First Nations communities have clean drinking water and adequate housing?
The usual lot from the “Stop Harper” camp complain that the “so called fiscally conservative” Stephen Harper added to the federal debt during the early part of his tenure, but neglect to acknowledge that he did so during an economic recession, as well as during a point in his tenure when he held a minority government, one that surely would have fallen if he hadn’t managed to appease the spendthrifts lefties who held the balance of power.
Those are the same spendthrift lefties almost successfully staged a coup in 2008, just months after the election that year, one that was stopped when Harper prorogued Parliament, but I digress.
Some day, we are all going to wake up and find that we are going to have to burn the furniture to heat the house. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
Sources: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/interest-payments-government-debt-painful-reminder-there-are-no-free-lunches, https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/election-2019/liberal-platform-projects-deficits-of-over-20-billion-per-year-for-four-years-adds-31-5-billion-in-debt