Tax Cuts? What Frigging Tax Cuts?

In the department of the terminally buffaloed, we have people asking about the "tax savings" due to cut in July 1 (specifically a 1% GST cut). This isn't a real tax savings - it's imaginary mostly. Low income Canadians raising families will pay more - because of the taxability of the "childcare allowance" that HarperCrit came up with in his last budget.

In another signal of the Conservative party's view of government (which mysteriously seems to parallel the neocon fundamentalism of the United States), we have Flaherty telling provinces to "fend for themselves" instead of "relying on Ottawa's equalization program". Fascinating - so it's a waste of money in their books to use tax dollars to ensure a degree of equality of opportunity and access to programs across the country? How delightfully neo-con of you. This is precisely the brain-damaged thinking that has resulted in a crumbling public education system in the United States. The Federal government retreats from funding anything "public", downloading it entirely to the lower levels of government. The problem with such an approach are fairly obvious - Alberta is rolling in surplus dollars right now, and could probably afford to build new schools on every block and still have money left over; meanwhile, Atlantic Canada is still reeling from the gradual decline and collapse of the fishery. Atlantic Canada is rebuilding itself, and slowly becoming a force in other sectors, but it will be decades before that process is complete. Why should Atlantic Canadians suffer lesser degrees of service than Albertans?

Then, in a seeming contradiction, we have the CPC spending heavily on military upgrades. I'm not against funding the army adequately, but I'd like us to articulate just what it is we expect our army to be as a nation. Then I'll think about just how we should fund it. Yesterday, the announcement was new supply ships, today its new trucks - later this week, we should see the aircraft announcements come trickling in.

What does this mean? It means, as I've suspected for a long time, that the CPC doesn't think people matter - except as a source of votes. Bulking up the military looks good in their minds because they think - like George Bush - in terms of confrontation and conflict. Getting "tough on crime" similarly looks good for them - not because it has any real effect, but because in their confrontational minds, it's all about "getting even", not protecting the public by addressing the factors that drive people to crime.

Tax cuts are a nostrum. They mean little, and do even less. If you are "wealthy", then there's some benefit, but those on the lower end of the income spectrum are left to fend for themselves in the name of "equality".