The damage Harper has done

The Toronto Star has created an interactive graphic detailing the myriad of reckless spending cuts the Harper Government has made over the past 8 years.

The article also delves into Harper’s Soviet-style government secrecy and the difficulties the Parliamentary Budget Office — Harper created — has had in gaining access to public budget documents.

“The idea for a parliamentary budget office came when the Conservatives were an opposition party,” Page said in an interview. It was a “noble idea” to set up an independent body to make government spending more accountable. “Obviously, everything changed when they took power.”

But Page says MPs are deliberately being denied information they need to fulfill their duty to scrutinize the use of taxpayers’ money. “The prime minister effectively rigs the game so the power of the purse rests with the cabinet and the PM, as opposed to the House of Commons where it belongs,” says Page.

Balanced budget bullshit

The Cons are boasting the mess they made of the budget with $44.4 billion a year in boutique tax cuts will be cleaned up in time for the 2015 election. Of course, they plan to return to massive deficits with promises of billions more in frivolous tax expenditures — part of their “starve the beast” agenda.

Real numbers

Clearly there’s no way to know what the real budget numbers will be until we oust the Cons and get a real look at the books. But when Flim Flam Flaherty was finance minister in Ontario in 2003, he claimed a $5.6 billion deficit was a balanced budget. I hate to think how deep the rabbit hole goes now.

Restructure, reverse, repair

Whoever forms the next government will have to restructure/reverse most of these tax cuts and put the resources to better use. Trudeau and Mulcair must forgo the lame “read my lips: no new taxes” bullshit.

The damage Harper has done