Taxes, budgets, Canada, GST
Conservative budget was fairBy Arthur Weinreb, Associate Editor,
Friday, May 5, 2006
The budget that was tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday was nothing if not fair. It may very well have been nothing but I digress. The government should be praised for achieving something that affects the entire country that can be considered to be fair. The word "fair" is bantered around a great deal but what is actually fair often remains elusive and achieving fairness in no mean feat.
It is impossible for a government to do anything let alone introduce a budget that will make everybody happy. The next best thing is to make everyone, or almost everyone, equally unhappy. About the only people that were truly happy with the budget seemed to be Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and we can never be too sure about Stephen. What makes this budget fair is that it is being attacked by critics on both sides of the political spectrum and for completely opposite reasons.
Many of those on the right have criticized the budget for not being conservative enough. In his National Post column, Andrew Coyne wrote that this budget could have just as easily been drafted by a Liberal finance minister. And the Toronto Suns Linda Leatherdale criticized the budget for not lowering the "tax on a tax" GST on gasoline prices to give Canadians some relief from the high cost of gas which is now averaging over $1 a litre.
Writing in Canada Free Press, Klaus Rohrich pretty well summed up how many small "c" conservatives feel about Jim Flahertys first federal budget. The government is calling for spending to be increased from its current rate and this spending includes monies for the creation of daycare spaces and subsidies for a range of items that includes transit passes and childrens sporting activities. Rohrich also makes the argument that "[c]utting a consumption tax doesnt give nearly the same quality of bang-for-buck as does cutting income taxes". He also makes the point that a change in the lowest tax rate from 15% to 15.5% cannot be considered a tax cut despite the Tories attempt to paint it as such.
The left has criticized the budget for being opposite to what many on the right say that it is. There has been a lot of criticism about the budget doing nothing except providing tax cuts to the rich. Or, as Leader of the Opposition Bill Graham put it, it is a "neocon" budget. And after the budget came down, there was wailing from the usual sources that there was not enough spending, not too much. According to those who wallow in doom and gloom scenarios, Aboriginals will all die a little earlier than the rest of us who will shortly succumb to global warming because the Tories refuse to spend enough money on Aboriginals and the environment. The best criticism from the left had to be from Liberal leadership lightweight Carolyn Bennett who told CTVs Mike Duffy that kids will wind up in jail because they will not have access to national daycare--you know, the program that the Liberals had promised to deliver for 13 years but never got around to implementing.
So the budget has been criticized for providing too many tax cuts, not cutting taxes enough, spending too much and spending too little. And thats what you call being fair.
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Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Toronto Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. |
Arthur can be reached at:
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