enough, already: STOP THE F***ING TAX CUTS!

Conservatives. They think that money grows on trees. And they think that all they need to do to make the money tree grow is prune it with tax cuts and sprinkle it with tax expenditures and tax incentives. And that is the part of their Economic Action Plan that they actually believe in. The rest is even worse: that just consists of reluctant scattergun spending on various political constituencies without any intellectual coherence. They give more money to culture ("after all we got burned by Quebecers in the last election for not doing so") but give less to social science research ("most of them are against us"); they say that they're on board with Barack Obama and the G-20 in providing economic stimulus, but then avoid investments in the green economy and wind and solar power that would keep Canada in the lead on climate change (guess where the research and development jobs in wind and solar and renewables will be?); they deal with child care and First Nations issues through more "targetted spending".

• Remember when Gordon Campbell campaigned to reduce income taxes by 20% and reassured us that the cuts "would pay for themselves" and therefore would not impair social spending? Not only did he blow a huge hole in revenues and create the largest deficit in BC history, but within a few years he and Carole Taylor were claiming that "health care costs were getting out of control". Actually, international comparisons showing France spending 1.1% more of its GDP on health care than Canada and the US spending 5% more of its GDP on health care than Canada suggest that it is private and two-tier systems that are "out of control"; Canada at 10% and Britain at 8% are doing just fine (although they should spend more). So why all the bullshit? The Conservatives are leading us down the same path as the BC Campbell Liberals: cut, cut, cut, cut taxes and then complain that single-payer health care is "unsustainable".

• Economists frequently make cogent arguments for shifting taxes away from income taxes (or taxes on productive activity) to expenditure taxes (in order to promote saving and investment) and Pigouvian taxes (to discourage pollution and other negative externalities). So why was the Conservative priority to have $12 billions in reduced GST instead? Because it was ideologically congenial, politically opportunistic, and the business lobby wanted it.
• If most economists place less stress than the government does on tax cuts for stimulus (because tax cuts mean larger deficits, and spending on students, EI recipients and low-income households yield a larger multiplier effect), why did the government persist? Because it was ideologically congenial, politically opportunistic, and the business lobby wanted it.
• If childrens' sports tax credit has been criticized because it disproportionately benefits middle-class suburbanites and doesn't help the most needy 1/3 of children; if the childcare tax credit has been criticized for not doing enough to either stimulate supply or guarantee high quality of universal early childcare learning; if 95-97% of those being subsidized by the public transit tax credit were riding public transit anyway and a consultant's report told them that the cost of the tax credit would be a wasteful $800 per tonne of greenhouse gas eliminated and would have little impact on transit usage, why did the government persist? Because it was ideologically congenial, politically opportunistic, and the business lobby wanted it.
• If the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development has dismissed the $1.5 billion Clean Air and Climate Change Trust Fund as being little more than a transfer payment ot the provinces "conducted [with]almost no analysis", why did the government persist? Because it was ideologically congenial, politically opportunistic, and the business lobby wanted it.
• If reliable analysis backed up by extensive international research suggests that every dollar spent on early childhood intervention can save 8 or 9 dollars down the road in improved productivity and reduced social costs; or that preventing a single fetal alcohol syndrome child can save society a million dollars in costs to health, education, and criminal justice systems; or that strategic investment in scientific research, universities, and alternative energy can make Canada a more competitive and productive country in the future, why didn't the government go for it? Because it wasn't ideologically congenial, wasn't politically opportunistic, and the business lobby didn't want it.

It's such a shame--all those years when we were light-years ahead of the conservatives in Washington and could have led the world in productive social investments. Pretty soon we'll be playing catch-up to the Americans, all because the Liberals didn't believe in half or what they were saying, and the Conservatives didn't believe in half of what they were doing.