LOL: Andrea ‘too conservative’ for Jeffrey Simpson

The Globe & Mail’s Jeffrey Simpson is your typical red-Tory anti-NDP bigot who regularly writes columns attempting to eviscerate the NDP.

One can’t help but laugh at Simpson’s latest op-ed which sheepishly complains Andrea is “awfully conservative.”

Of course, whenever Simpson goes on an anti-NDP diatribe, he tends to get his facts wrong. This column was no exception.

He attempts to portray fiscal responsibility as a conservative red-meat issue. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Fiscal Goldilocks

Neo-con governments tend to be fiscally reckless. They blow big holes in the budget with reckless tax cuts that primarily benefit the rich. This causes massive deficits and rising debt.

Then you have the fiscal conservatism of the Chretien-Martin years: deep spending cuts accompanied with huge surpluses that rapidly paid down debt.

Last is Keynesian fiscal responsibility: average balanced budgets. This pays down debt (measured in debt/GDP) with mostly economic — GDP — growth.

Using this system in the post-WW2 era, we paid down debt from over 100% to 45% by the 1970s. (After decades of tax cuts for the rich, it’s back up to 87%.)

NDP founding father Tommy Douglas was a Keynesian who ran balanced budgets.

Andrea’s Plan

Andrea’s Plan is to prevent government waste before it ends up in an Auditor General’s report. And with the savings, there will be more for social programs.

And let’s face the facts: with policies like home care for seniors, 0% interest on student loans, dental car for kids, $12/h minimum wage, Andrea is the only real progressive running in this election.

NDP Record

Although the media portrays the NDP as reckless spenders, the fact is the NDP has the best fiscal record of all parties according to the Canadian Center of Policy Alternatives.

Simpson comments

Last it’s surprising to see that the most popular comments on Simpson’s column were pro-Andrea. It’s good to see that although the corporate media is all over Andrea like a pack of hyenas, they are not fooling the people.