本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛In Canada, the story is much the same. In their 10 years in office, the Progressive Conservative governments of the 1980s never once presented close to a balanced budget. In 1993, the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien inherited an accumulated deficit of $487.5 billion. At the time, this represented approximately 72 per cent of the GDP. It was under the Liberal watch that the tough job of chipping away at those deficits began. In 1997, the government posted a surplus - the first in decades. And a surplus remained until 2007, when the country went back into the red barely a year after the Harper Conservatives took office.
Canada’s Public Accounts underline the point: as a share of the GDP, net debt in 2006 was 32.8 per cent, and down 41 percentage points from its peak of 73.9 per cent on March 31, 1996. Canada’s balance sheet was repaired by the Liberal governments of Chrétien and Paul Martin. They accomplished this through tight management of program spending, some program cuts, revenue increases, expanded trade and a growing economy.
This gross mismanagement didn’t start with the mind-blowing $1.3 billion price tag for two days of meetings, the $16 billion for untendered jets to fight the Russians, or the $12 billion for new prisons to deal with a declining crime rate. Under Harper, the federal debt grew by $5.8 billion in 2008-09 and by $53.8 billion in 2009-10, and is expected to grow by $49.2 billion in 2010-11 and to continue growing through 2014-15 at least. In just three years, all the debt repayment of the previous eight years will be wiped out.
Stephen Harper is, as Tasha Kheiriddin the conservative columnist sarcastically wrote in the National Post, a “big-government Conservative.”
Before the recession of 2008, Harper presided over double-digit increases in government spending. Last year, he took Canada into the deepest deficit in its history to deal with pressing national priorities such as outdoor toilets, gazebos in Tony Clement’s riding, nature trails, swimming pools, and of course, lots of new hockey and curling rink roofs. Of course, let’s not forget the $100 million for government advertising and those thousands of snazzy “Made in the USA” “Economic Action Plan” signs.更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Canada’s Public Accounts underline the point: as a share of the GDP, net debt in 2006 was 32.8 per cent, and down 41 percentage points from its peak of 73.9 per cent on March 31, 1996. Canada’s balance sheet was repaired by the Liberal governments of Chrétien and Paul Martin. They accomplished this through tight management of program spending, some program cuts, revenue increases, expanded trade and a growing economy.
This gross mismanagement didn’t start with the mind-blowing $1.3 billion price tag for two days of meetings, the $16 billion for untendered jets to fight the Russians, or the $12 billion for new prisons to deal with a declining crime rate. Under Harper, the federal debt grew by $5.8 billion in 2008-09 and by $53.8 billion in 2009-10, and is expected to grow by $49.2 billion in 2010-11 and to continue growing through 2014-15 at least. In just three years, all the debt repayment of the previous eight years will be wiped out.
Stephen Harper is, as Tasha Kheiriddin the conservative columnist sarcastically wrote in the National Post, a “big-government Conservative.”
Before the recession of 2008, Harper presided over double-digit increases in government spending. Last year, he took Canada into the deepest deficit in its history to deal with pressing national priorities such as outdoor toilets, gazebos in Tony Clement’s riding, nature trails, swimming pools, and of course, lots of new hockey and curling rink roofs. Of course, let’s not forget the $100 million for government advertising and those thousands of snazzy “Made in the USA” “Economic Action Plan” signs.更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net