The various Suns, including the one that Stephen Harper can pick up in his hometowns of Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto, had this story online last night and in their hard copies this morning:
His reckless spending wins short-term gain for long-term pain
Last Updated: August 10, 2010 10:00pm
I love partisan Tories. They make me laugh.
They just can’t accept the fact that their leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has turned on them. Turned left that is.
I know it’s painful to accept. But Harper and federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty are not fiscal conservatives. When it comes to fiscal policy, they are now liberal social democrats.
Harper was once a proud fiscal conservative who headed the National Citizens Coalition, which — among other things — preached fiscal responsibility, including balanced budgets and debt reduction. It was their gospel.
No more. Harper is now spending taxpayers’ dollars so wildly, it would make former prime minister Pierre Trudeau blush.
The Harper government is projected to put taxpayers $56 billion further into debt this year. And long-term projections would have the Tories add more than $150 billion to the national debt before getting back to surplus, bringing it to a record level of more than $600 billion.
The conversion is now complete. Stephen Harper’s a lefty, at least when it comes to government finances.
Oh yeah, I forgot. The opposition made Harper do it. I’m still hearing that tired, pathetic old line from Tory faithful in response to my Tuesday column.
Harper was “forced” to go $56 billion into deficit this year. He had “no choice” but to create a structural deficit which will take years to get out of. And he was “pushed” to add more than $150 billion to the national debt.
Right. Talk about revisionist history.
I’ll tell you what. Provide me with evidence that the opposition was demanding that Harper go $56 billion into deficit, that he create a structural deficit beyond “stimulus” spending and that he add more than $150 billion to the national debt. And then I’ll correct the record. Maybe I missed it. Send me the evidence.
What we do know is that back in 2008 the opposition parties were proposing a one-time stimulus package of something “substantially less” than $30 billion. None of the parties were demanding government go more than $50 billion into the glue in 2009 and 2010, which the Tories have done.
None of the opposition parties were demanding government create a long-term structural deficit.
And not once did I hear any of the opposition leaders say government should add $150 billion to the national debt.
Sorry Tory folks. That was all Harper. Hate to break it to you.
If Harper was a true fiscal conservative who had respect for taxpayers’ dollars, he would have posted a limited, short-term deficit of, say, $10 billion to $20 billion. He would have controlled spending, cut bureaucratic waste and delayed discretionary projects. He would have exercised a little short-term pain for long-term gain.
By posting a small, short-term deficit of one or two years, he would have satisfied the demands of opposition parties threatening to topple his government.
And he would have successfully managed the delicate balance of not cutting too deeply during recession while protecting the long-term interests of taxpayers.
That’s what fiscal conservatives do.
Harper didn’t do that. He blew the bank wide open and spent recklessly. He exercised short-term gain for long-term pain.
That’s what New Democrats do. That’s what NDP Leader Jack Layton would do if he were in power.
It’s not what a fiscal conservative does.
Stephen Harper may be many things, my friends. But he is no fiscal conservative.
Deal with it.
For more, visit Brodbeck’s blog Raise a Little Hell at
winnipegsun.com.
Reach Tom by e-mail at
tom.brodbeck@sunmedia.ca.
It may not be the beginning of the end but, as Winston Churchill said previously, it is certainly the end of the beginning.
WFDS
It is a long-standing misrepresentation to suggest that the fiscal issue is a left vs right issue. Provincial NDP governments have a very good record of balancing budgets and many right-wing governments have a terrible record. I think we can safely say that Harper is, and has always been, a political opportunist. Furthermore, I think Harper was always looking to run the federal government into deficit in order to justify long-term destruction of social programs. In this analysis, the deficit is just another part of his overall right-wing strategy.
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