Monday, July 24, 2006

Overheard

"The GST cut is such a waste of time. Why couldn't they take that money and spend on something good like bicycle paths?"

Posted by Randy at 10:28 pm

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

An income tax cut would likely have been more appreciated by people. I wonder why they didn't do that instead.

I wasn't aware that the federal government had any role in developing bike paths. After four years of poli-sci, you'd have thought I'd know these things. I tip my hat to the source of this valuable information. I now consider myself that much more informed.

Unrelated to anything:

+1/0 for Supreme Overlord

7/30/2006 2:32 pm
Randy said...

"An income tax cut would likely have been more appreciated by people."

Perhaps. But maybe a GST cut is appreciated by more people. After all, if you pay no income tax, how do you benefit from an income tax cut?

Didn't the Liberals proprose an income tax cut beforehand? If so, then the Conservatives would have looked like copycats. Plus, lowering/eliminating the GST is more consistent with the Reform/CA platform.

Economic wisdom says lower income taxes too. Encourages investment, they say, because we are less likely to spend our money right away on the things we want. Or some such thing.

"I wasn't aware that the federal government had any role in developing bike paths."

Perhaps the speaker is accustomed to Liberal style federalism, where the federal government has any role in any jurisdiction it pleases.

7/30/2006 11:43 pm
Anonymous said...

"Perhaps the speaker is accustomed to Liberal style federalism, where the federal government has any role in any jurisdiction it pleases."

True enough, but it also works the other way. The provinces have the capacity to effectively hold the federal government hostage, even if it's operating within its own constitutional bounds. It's one of the reasons why Canada will never become part of the U.S. The provinces just wouldn't put up with the loss of power that would be entailed. It's strangely comforting in a way.

7/31/2006 1:07 am

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