Will the Liberals End Deficits and Fix the Economy?

Short answer, no. Their official history as fiscal conservatives with a social conscience is ridiculed with fallacies. But that was then, this is now. Canada is facing some major problems in the coming years. What would the Liberals do about it? Probably whatever the IMF says; nevertheless here is the Liberal Economic Plan:




No corporate tax cuts – As I wrote yesterday, corporate tax cuts are good. The Grits should campaign on cutting all taxes.

Making better choices - All government spending is wasteful.

Fiscal prudence – Austerity. Spending cuts and tax hikes. We need the former, drop the latter.

“Proposing new programs in the Liberal platform only if they can be financed without adding to the deficit.” – Like expanded CPP or family plans? Or what about destroying billions based on pseudoscience, or a national food policy? Make no mistake, Ignatieff's Liberals are NDP-lite.

Deficit reduction by committing to a deficit to GDP target of 1% – The point of this initiative is to keep the deficit contained so the debt-to-GDP ratio doesn't change. The GDP measures everything, including deficit spending. If the Liberals run a deficit of $16 billion, that is 1 percent of our total GDP ($1.6 trillion). Come recession time, this 1% may justify never returning to budget surpluses. Perpetual deficits are not “manageable” nor are they necessary for an economic recovery.

It's important here to remember the words of Bastiat,

"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."

Fuckin' eh.