Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Stephen Harper. Economic Steward My Ass.

Ridiculous inflation numbers are in. Read 'em and weep.

11 comments:

doconnor said...

3.3% isn't that high. You can blame Harper for a lot of things, but rising world oil and food prices aren't among them. Core inflation is still a low 1.7%.

James Curran said...

Ding Ding Ding. And we have our first Conservative talking point!

This is the same Harper that told the country in '08 there wouldn't be a deficit in Canada and certainly not a structural deficit? That's the Harper you speak of?

doconnor said...

Yes, Harper deserves the blame for that.

As a socialist, I am inclined put people's well being ahead concerns over inflation and the deficit.

It's a good day when I can call the Conservatives the worst government in Canadian history and be accused of being one.

Robert G. Harvie, Q.C. said...

Decent exchange.. lol.

I tend not to see Harper as having done the job expected of a fiscal conservative.. but he's not responsible for gas prices. He's not responsible for keeping interest rates down. And if we did move rates up to curb inflation, our dollars jumps up even more and our manufacturing sector starts to stall again.

James Curran said...

How about stimulating the people at home. Like our most vulnerable and poorest so that they don't have to choose between rent or heat?

Or....let's buy some engineless jets and gazebos.

How about this. We are one of the top energy producers in the world, yet our own citizens have to pay rediculous prices for energy. Why? Because the multi nationals have to profit. Why? Because we subsidize them.

Yes. More tax breaks for those bastards please.

doconnor said...

Removing HST from home heating and removing subsides from oil companies are both NDP policies.

James Curran said...

And one that I am in favour of and fought for at the provincial level...although I narrowed to seniors, pensioners and those making under $18k.

Robert G. Harvie, Q.C. said...

James, James, James..

The "bastard" oil companies we "subsize" (ie.. telling someone to pay you $100 instead of $200) actually are paying the way of a good part of our country.

The equalization payments from Alberta alone are almost enough to cover the whole of the Canada Health budget.

And that money is coming from the "bastard" oil companies.

As pointed out in a relatively recent StatsCan analysis - the top 10% of the income earners in Canada pay 52% of the combined income tax.

At the same time, the bottom 50% pays only 4%.

Yes. Those bastards - how dare those 10% only pay 52%. Clearly one half of all adult Canadians are getting screwed for being tasked with paying 4% of the load.

And yes - it's more complicated than that - but I would love to see a Paul Martin Liberal or a Brian Mulroney Conservative say, "We're going to do less, but do it very well."

How about shutting down CBC and the CRTC and putting 100% of that money into heating subsidies for seniors?

Maybe divert funding from the CHR's to post-secondary education?

There's a lot of waste wayyyy beyond jets and gazebos.

But no one, including the current government, seems too interested in doing it - because it's easier just to keep the money-train running than to tell SOME people that the free lunch is over.

James Curran said...

Hey.
You know what else we could do? We could give pay raises to all our Parliamentary staff. And bigger severance packages too so that when thay are thrown under the bus they have a soft cushion to land on.

Hey. Then we can get them a job at one of our thinks tanks to make up for it. Or we'll invent a new think tank. Or something.

Ethical Oil. Gotta love ethical oil.

James Curran said...

Hey.
You know what else we could do? We could give pay raises to all our Parliamentary staff. And bigger severance packages too so that when thay are thrown under the bus they have a soft cushion to land on.

Hey. Then we can get them a job at one of our thinks tanks to make up for it. Or we'll invent a new think tank. Or something.

Ethical Oil. Gotta love ethical oil.

Kaputall said...

Keep in mind that anything the Conservatives "did" to keep the economy on a decent track was because of measures that had already been implemented through the Liberals.

I am inclined to agree doconnor that well-being is significantly more important than problems like inflation. Inflation itself is not a problem - it is only an issue when it outstrips wages further. We shall see what happens here.....