Who will win? Part 2 ‘Taxes must rise’ or ‘Tax cuts possible?’

Mere seconds after reading a recent editorial (Read my lips: Taxes must rise, Paul Berton), a pertinent and brilliant thought rushed through my little round head.

I.e., the editor of the other local paper is reading my stuff.

Another thought (also pertinent and brilliant) soon followed.

I.e., good for him. Let him take some of the heat too for saying the word taxes right out loud.


["My view: Buy a big piggy bank"]

And ‘the heat’ did arrive just a few days after the editorial appeared.

Kevin Gaudet, director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), screamed in the headline ‘Tax cuts possible without cutting services’ and went on to give his methods of saving the day for all Canadians who feel taxes are just too darn high - everywhere, every minute of the day.

Before Mr. Gaudet explains how to accomplish the near impossible, i.e., offer tax cuts without cutting services, he suggests tax hikes explain why ‘Canadians feel they work harder and harder yet keep falling further and further behind. Is it any wonder personal savings are low when so much money goes to taxes year after year?’

I looked everywhere in his article for one word about how low personal savings and rising personal debt (at an all-time high) might also be related to major purchases, e.g., our big-screen TVs, big cars and pickups and SUVs and big homes in the burbs that need more furniture than our parents ever dreamt about, but I say nary a word.

(So, if you belong to CTF, tell me this. How can you believe this stuff about how taxes are the main reason Canadians have low personal savings? Do you not have a mortgage? A credit card? Just wondering).

And for those wondering about the CTF way to get tax cuts without seeing a cut in government service?

“Government could start by eliminating corporate welfare and bringing public sector wages in line with the private sector, for example. Spending goes down without affecting service.”

No doubt we could save some money by encouraging corporations to pay their own way, but telling governments to make them do it doesn’t make it happen.

And how have low corporate taxes helped our country so far? (Remember, our national debt is rising and all corporate taxes are now swallowed up entirely by the debt charges alone.

No doubt, if public sector wages we’re lower we’d save money. But which is easier if we took that course - to lower peoples’ wages or trim the number of staff? And if we trimmed staff, does that not result in a drop in service?


["Oh yeah - a hard rains-a-gonna-fall"]

I think CTF needs to get real.

And growing national debt may force more than the CTF to get real.

My verdict: Higher taxes will one day win over tax cuts.

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My recommendation: Reduce spending, pay down debt, and save for the tough times ahead, which will likely include an increase in personal and corporate taxes.

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