Expose Jim Flaherty's hypocrisy

February 26, 2008

The finance minister has gargantuan gall to say that he can’t afford to spend on new programs because the cupboard is bare.  Only Paul Martin has done more to deliberately empty the cupboard. Martin handed out $100 billion in tax cuts over 5 years and Flaherty gave away $60 billion over 3 years.

This is exactly where both men wanted to be facing a deficit situation so they can argue that there is no money for enhancing social programs or addressing other issues.

This letter does not have to be long or complicated: just expose the hypocrisy in a paragraph or two.

FRAMING: As above, frame Flaherty’s “caution” and “fiscal responsibility” (and his repairing his shoes instead of buying new ones as is the custom) as crying crocodile tears.  He is exactly where he wants to be. The huge tax cuts of the fall and the past 8 years is simply another “useful crisis” create a situation where you are nearly in deficit and then declare “My gawd, we have no money!” 
 
Here are a few facts you can toss in to back up your argument:

• The Harper government’s cuts to the GST have simply thrown away $12 billion that could be spent on lowering tuition fees, starting a national child care program or developing programs to meet our Kyoto commitments. The GST is conservative tax that Flaherty and Harper support ideologically.  Cutting it is sheer political opportunism and a perfect way to get rid of $12 billion you might otherwise have to spend Between 1984 and 2006 the federal government, which is supposed to be looking after the interests of the country, has voluntarily given up over $250 billion in revenue -- an amount that would have made a huge difference in the quality of life of Canada. Last fall Flaherty gave up another $60 billion more.

• Cutting corporate taxes does absolutely nothing to promote investment or make Canadian companies more productive. This is just corporate welfare nothing more.

• Will yet more tax cuts make us more "competitive" as Finance Minister Flaherty said in his economic update? The World Economic Forum shows that the more we cut corporate taxes, the less competitive we become.  In 1999, the year before Paul Martin introduced his huge tax cuts, Canada was 5th in the competitiveness sweepstakes. After seven years of tax cuts we are in 16th place.

• The Nordic countries, which collect half their GDP in taxes each year all beat Canada in competitiveness. Nine of the 15 countries ahead of us have higher taxes.

• If we really wanted to be competitive we would spend billions on improving and replacing our eroding infrastructure, encourage the development of green technologies, and implement a national child care program so hundreds of thousands of Canadians could afford to go to work.

• Canada’s infrastructure deficit is estimated to be between $60 billion and $120 billion.

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