Michael Ignatieff Will Raise Your Taxes
So Michael Ignatieff came to my town yesterday, and reportedly pronounced foolishly on taxes. Here’s what he is reported to have said:
“We will have to raise taxes, but not at the expense of hurting the recovery from this recession… I am not going to load a deficit onto your children or mine.”
He criticized the federal governement[sic] for not quickly freeing money in the federal stimulus package. He said the government should give municipalities the money, as they are in a better position to know how to spend it.
Lets parse those words a minute. First, Ignatieff suggests he’s pressing Prime Minister Harper to free up stimulus money “quickly.” But then he talks about who is the best position to know how to spend it. I would agree the municipalities, because they are closer to the people. Wouldn’t it then imply that giving the stimulus directly to the people would be best. And how do you give stimulus directly to the people? Cut their taxes. But Mr. Ignatieff is not pushing for tax cuts, he’s pushing for quickened spending.
That spending, of course, will push the government into deficit, a bad thing according to Ignatieff. Yet he is pushing Mr. Harper to spend. Of course, all this spending will force future Prime Minister Ignatieff to increase taxes. This is a bad thing, that is bad for the economy. Don’t take my word for it, take his:
We will have to raise taxes, but not at the expense of hurting the recovery from this recession.
That’s right, raising taxes while the economy is recovering would set back the recovery. But once the economy is good? It’s alright to set it back I guess. But if raising taxes is bad for the economy, it makes sense that lowering them is good. So here’s Ignatieff’s logic train:
Lowering taxes is the best economic stimulus; deficit spending is bad for the future; raising taxes is bad for the economy: therefore, we’ll spend into large deficits and raise taxes in the future.
You know what’s frustrating. With this little speech Michael Ignatieff proves he gets it, he knows Keynesian policies are bad policies. Further, we know, absolutely know, that Stephen Harper gets this – Stephen Harper wrote his thesis on why stimulus doesn’t work. The two men who have all the power of the Canadian government both get that the fiscal policy direction is wrong and has negative future implications, yet neither one is even discussing taking the proper course. Instead we get speeches about how in the future we are going to get bad policy to adjust for today’s bad policy.
Instead of another election some time in the next year, or the never-ending Brian Heinz Mulreiber debacle, Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper should be tried for economic treason against Canada. That’s one scandal this blogger would pay attention to.
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