Federal government may not balance the books until 2016-17
Gunnair @ Thu Nov 15, 2012 6:41 pm
RUEZ RUEZ:
Curtman Curtman:
If Justin Bieber, I mean Trudeau wins....
You pretty much hit the nail on the head. If he wins the leadership he may well win the next federal election. People love celebrities.
Why not? What makes them any less capable than our current crop? Hell, they're better looking than Harper and Mulchair so they bring the Kardashian element into it on top of the barely competent.
Curtman @ Thu Nov 15, 2012 7:53 pm
Gunnair Gunnair:
Justin wants decrim of pot.
At this point, everyone except the CPC does. Even they will likely come on board when they realize they are on the losing side of popular opinion.
Lemmy @ Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:33 pm
JaredMilne JaredMilne:
You don't have to be a left-winger to think that the GST cut was a bad idea.
You don't need to be an economist to know that the GST cut was a great idea. Harper didn't know it at the time, but reducing taxes was absolutely the correct economic policy since we were entering a recession. In a recession, you want to encourage spending. You want to make spending more affordable for people harmed by the recession. Whether tax revenues rise or fall is secondary (and I'm not convinced that the GST cut didn't IMPROVE government revenues, vis-a-vis the Laffer curve, compared to what tax revenues WOULD HAVE BEEN had the rate been kept at 7%. It's my professional opinion that revenues would have fallen even father, in response to the recession, had the GST not been cut). A lot of hard-hit folks benefited greatly by the GST cut. Especially the poorest element of our society, who pay no income tax and spend every cent they earn. The only way to give them a tax-break is by cutting consumption taxes.
Criticize Harper for the things he's screwed up, but cutting the GST has absolutely been one of the best things the Harper government has done.
JaredMilne @ Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:46 pm
Lemmy Lemmy:
Criticize Harper for the things he's screwed up, but cutting the GST has absolutely been one of the best things the Harper government has done.
Or not...
$1:
OTTAWA -- Last year's GST cut did not stimulate increased consumer spending or the economy and, unlike some other tax cuts, will not pay for itself in the long run, a new analysis has concluded.
"Do tax cuts pay for themselves? Well, certainly the GST reduction didn't," Global Insight said in an analysis Tuesday of the costs and impact of the one-point cut in the sales tax rate by the minority Conservative government to six per cent from seven last July.
"The relationship between GST revenues and consumer expenditures reveals no significant evidence of stimulated consumer spending," concluded the analysis, based on Finance Department fiscal reports that run through June 2007 -- the first 12 months since the Harper government carried through on its election promise and cut the GST.
"A cut in almost any other kind of federal government tax would have been more effective in stimulating economic growth and would have resulted in it getting more of the lost revenue back," Dale Orr, the think-tank's chief economist, and author of the report, said in an interview.
Among the tax cuts that would be the most effective in stimulating economic activity and boosting future revenues would an income-tax cut, which as well as leaving people with more money to spend, would encourage them to work longer and harder to earn more, Orr said.
However, he noted that the Conservative government instead raised personal income taxes in its first budget.
"That was done specifically to finance the GST cut," Orr said.
Lemmy @ Thu Nov 15, 2012 10:33 pm
Dale Orr's a good guy. But he's wrong even if he's right. It doesn't matter whether the tax cuts raised or lowered government revenues. What's more important is that the tax cuts helped the people most harmed by the recession: poor people.
JaredMilne @ Thu Nov 15, 2012 11:00 pm
Lemmy Lemmy:
Dale Orr's a good guy. But he's wrong even if he's right. It doesn't matter whether the tax cuts raised or lowered government revenues. What's more important is that the tax cuts helped the people most harmed by the recession: poor people.
By how much, exactly?
From what I've seen, the GST cut has saved me less than a buck when I fill up my gas tank, and maybe a few pennies if I go to Tim Horton's.
Besides, aren't a lot of the essential stuff like rent, groceries, etc. either exempted from or not applicable to the GST? So if a lot of those poor people are spending most of their income on essentials anyway, did they really save a whole lot of money, considering how little is actually saved by low-end purchases and the GST not being applied to what they spend most of their money on anyway?