robinson@ubc-ean.CDN (Jim Robinson) (07/31/84)
> > Just one small correction to Martin's article. The House of > Representatives, democratically controled for over twenty years, > is the place where the final budget is decided. IF the > democrats were so all fired, dead-set against deficit spending, > they had every chance in the world to change the fact. Instead, > they managed to load the budget with all kinds of schemes and > spending items so that the true budget proposed by Reagan was > inflated just to please themselves. Then they had the gall to > point to the White House as the reason for the deficits. The > Democrat controlled House divinely believes in the old > Machiavllian tenet that "If you tell a lie often enough and > loud enough, people will believe it." That is just what has > been happening concerning the budget and deficits in the > US. I am sorry that I cannot speak about Canada's problems, > but I do realize that many of the things that happen in the > US concerning economic questions have a bearing on Canadian > economics. I wish it weren't so. > T. C. Wheeler The Liberals in this country are in even a worse position. Since about 1976 ( I could be wrong about the exact year, it could be '75), the Liberals have enjoyed a majority in the House of Commons ( This means, for you American Netlanders, that if the Prime Minister decided to spend $10 billion on the effects of different shades of the colour green on the growing habits of mushrooms, nothing short of a back-bencher revolt ( which appears to be very rare) could stop him. This is equivalent to the US having a Democrat in the Presidency, a Democratically controlled Senate AND Congress, and a tradition whereby any Democratic in either House who did not vote as the President wishes would be considered to be a renegade and could kiss off any and all hopes of going anywhere further in the party and would probably have a difficult, if not impossible, time receiving the party's nomination for the next round of elections.) However, I digress. The point I am trying to make is that the Liberals have had full control of this country for many years, and so it is ludicrous for them to try to slough off the blame for the poor showing of the Canadian economy onto somebody else. ( The $30 billion deficit is theirs and no one else's) Yes T.C, it is true that many of the things that happen in the US concerning economic questions do indeed have a bearing on Canadian economics. This is because quite some time ago the Liberals decided that Canada should have close economic ties with the US. (Thus, for instance, we are each others largest trading partners). (To me this makes sense, but there are others who would disagree - however that's another story.) But, the funny part is that when things were great in both the US and Canada, the Liberals weren't saying things like "Golly, those Yankees sure know how to run an economy!", No siree, they were too busy patting each other on their backs and proclaiming themselves God's gift to the Canadian people. So, to reiterate the thrust of my initial article, for the Liberals to complain about high US deficits is both hypocritical and merely an attempt to divert blame from the real cause of the problem. P.S. Please note that the above is not entirely true. For 9 months in 1979 the Progressive Conservatives formed a minority government. That government fell when they tried to bring in a restraint budget that among other things included an 18 cent/gallon tax hike. ( I guess they wanted to do something silly like stem the flow of red ink .) The Liberals campaigned on a platform of 18 cents being too much , and the Canadian electorate, unwilling to put up any further with what was widely considered to be a poor Prime Minister, and also distressed by the possibility of having to pay more for their gas, returned the Liberals to power. The Liberals promptly hiked the gas tax even more than the PCs were going to and used the revenues for their programs, and NOT to help bring down the deficit as was the PC's aim. J.B. Robinson
mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (07/31/84)
J.B.Robinson correctly identifies the Liberals as the governing
party for most of the last 20 years, and equally correctly notes that
they never "blamed" the US for the good state of the Canadian economy
when both were doing well. How many political parties would you expect
to say "The economy is great, but we are not responsible?"
By innuendo, if not directly, he claims that a PC
(Progressive-Conservative, though the reason for "Progressive"
has long been lost in history) government would have reduced the deficit
and provided a better economic climate when Reagan sent the US economy
into a tailspin.
I think the Liberals are bunch of opportunists, but
their main error was to steal too much of the PC program and ideas,
which was exactly the opposite to what needs to be done for the economy.
Uncritical spending restraint can itself deepen a government deficit,
just as much as injudicious overspending can. In my view, poorly judged
restraint is just what we have had these last few years, and the
huge deficit is a natural result.
The PC's are just as much a bunch of opportunists as the Liberals;
every time they lose one or two elections, they blame their leader
and get a new one who looks better on TV. Joe Clark was probably the
best leader they have had since WWI, and it is only because of his
efforts that their present TV star has any chance of becoming Prime
Minister. The only person who talks sense more than 10% of the time
in the present election is Ed Broadbent, but how many people don't
listen because "he's a Socialist"?
--
Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt