Cut GST and Debt goes up

Gee if he is right, and I believe there is some truth to it, what do we do now? Kevin Page reported in his first report on government finances. Sun. Article in yesterday's Sun.

Is the assumption the GST is cut and as a result debt goes up - cause and effect? That is a ludicrous conclusion. The economy tanked. Revenues are down. And the new government plan includes a deficit.

We might as well say that Paul Martin's tax cuts are the cause of this deficit.

The conservative government has been cutting taxes, cutting the GST as promised and all that is happening is a tanking of the US economy, while the Canadian economy is performing the BEST of the G20, whoever those are!
The GST and the taxes cut have been a major benefit to the economy, in putting more money into the hands of the consumer to spend! The last time I spent $100, I had $2 extra because the gst was only 5% not the 7% as before, under the Liberals.

This is what I heard stupid Dion say during the election. He blamed the Conservative GST for causing us to overspend and go into debt. I have never heard anything so stupid. I bought a car and other stuff and the GST cut had NOTHING to do with my motivations.

Blaming gov't for cutting taxes is stupid. People need to take some personal responsibility for the debt they find themselves in.

Yes if anyone is to blame it is the easy credit the banks have given out that has caused personal debt to be what it is . But the goverment is maybe only telling us what we want to hear about there finances , as they all have different whys of doing it the books that is .

I don't see how peeps buy the cheapest priced things in 10 or 12 monthly payments, and ending up paying more for the stuff than if they would have bought better quality and in cash?
I'd go for the better quality at that point, if I had to pay more anyways...
Just sayin', but I was comparing flat screen LCD TV's.
Now if you take into perspective, cars, then there would be a difference between buying a "Yugo" or buying a BMW SUV...
Just sayin' once again, but peeps would chose the BMW... even if they can't keep up with the payments...
I personally look at what I really need, top priority, and the rest can wait...
So no flat screen TV, no SUV for me.
My next purchase will be the toilet and sink for my second washroom... I'll look into the interest rates...

The real point of the matter, is that Canada from 1970 to 1995 ran deficits each year! So what? Did it kill anyone? No! Did you even know? No! Does it matter? No Do you care? No!
What was the result? Little by little, Canada was getting into a dangerous economic situation! Brian Mulroney, Canada's 2nd best P.M., last year in office ran a $45 Billion dollar deficit!
So our debt equaled 71% of GDP! Who cares? Chretian took 3 years to cut spending to balance the budget in 1995, and since than our economy, thanks to Mulroney's free trade agreement (Mulroney, our 2nd best P.M> ever) has been growing at a very good rate, yielding increased revenues for the government , allowing it to pay down the deficit and at the same time put more money into provincial transfers as well as spending on programs that the government felt needed more money.
Harpers cut of 2% GST , cut 5 or 6 billion for each %, but the country was generating 12 to 20 additional billion in income because of increased business and personal taxes.
Now there is a cut in income, and Harper, our 3rd best P.M. ever will make some adjustments.

Make a free trade agreement with China, and Canada will wipe out it's deficit completely. Just sell them anything, even empty whiskey bottles, catfish, stinky orange mushrooms, the NDP, Liberals, Greens, PeeQuse, HRM, you name it...
In return, send all the junk they give to us, south of the border. Thus making a profit on that too.
Then Canada will be a much better place to live in.
We'll even have enough money for an NHL franchise in Brandon...

There's lots of room to manouver.If you cut the department of Indian and Northern Affairs you save an immediate $8 billion. Elliminate the CBC and save another $1 billion. Next focus on bloated arts funding and fatcat public pensions for retiring MPs.

incognito wrote:There's lots of room to manouver.If you cut the department of Indian and Northern Affairs you save an immediate $8 billion. Elliminate the CBC and save another $1 billion. Next focus on bloated arts funding and fatcat public pensions for retiring MPs.

You may be on to something...doing these simple things would probably allow us to scrap the GST completely.

However, Manitoba will separate before that happens I'm afraid.

I cant believe that everyone forgets that when the country runs a 13 billion dollar surplus, that is 13billion dollars Canadian Tax payers have been over taxed.

Money that you and I could use to pay down our household debt, or put more food on our tables, or use it to buy beer and popcorn.

Maybe we should make the Government of Canada operate in one Language. That would save Taxpayers billions. Trim the fat from our bloated bureaucracy. So many things we can do to cut taxes and avoid deficit spending, Problem is too many people are use to their "entitlements" / "handouts".

Wasn't a large part of that surplus generated by transferring "excess" EI funds into general revenues?

How much does it cost us to service our debt? Maybe we should take that $13 billion surplus and pay down our debt.

There is just so much waste in government.

Actually, Harper has been paying down the debt...to the tune of 40B I believe.

And GOM LDsaid:

I cant believe that everyone forgets that when the country runs a 13 billion dollar surplus, that is 13billion dollars Canadian Tax payers have been over taxed.

This is something that most Canadians just don't seem to understand. It's amazes me that some are so dense about this issue...perhaps a reflection of the "government will look after us syndrome" the is permeating our culture.

I cant believe that everyone forgets that when the country runs a 13 billion dollar surplus, that is 13billion dollars Canadian Tax payers have been over taxed.

Actually it was LivingDead that said that...

Oops.

Harper, following Chretian's lead, took 1/2 of the surplus to roll into new programs and the other half went onto the debt!

That worked pretty damn good, in my opinion!
The new programs entailed the 10 billion when the GST was cut.
I believe 2 years ago the surplus was 12 billion, and last year maybe as high as 20 billion?? maybe someone will check with Dr. google?
The debt is still pretty high , 583 billion in 1997, and today they are calculating it as a per centage of GDP (19.5%), the lowest of the G8 nations.
Of course they rate it as a per centage because that looks better than saying how big it is.
GDP goes up every year, so even if the government does not reduce the actual debt the % gets lower!
Statistics don't lie, statisticians do

2007- debt was at 508 billion

This one certainly deserves a revival.
The Conservatives were proposing a break even budget, but were forced into a $50 Billion Dollar deficit by the opposition parties planned coalition.
Canada is so obviously way better off this year because of that result! I for one have $22,000 extra this New Year compared to last year, which I think I might pledge to Harper, or else take MizP and G.O.M. out for a for breakfast if G.O.M. picks me up!

Can't today rosen. Perhaps another day?

Looking forward to it!!