Conservatives toy with opposing tax cuts
Parliament Hill at 8:22am this morning - winter has come to Ottawa(image courtesy of The Hill Cam)
The Ottawa Citizen (print edition) published an internal Conservative Party caucus memo today. It discusses the possibility of voting against the ways and means motion, which also amounts to voting against the tax cuts outlined in Goodale's "mini-budget".
This would be more of a symbolic gesture than an actual threat to the government. Both the NDP and the Bloc have indicated that they will vote in support of the government's motion.
So how will the party of tax cuts explain its decision to vote against tax cuts to bewildered Canadians? The memo includes some helpful talking points:
- "We're in favour of tax relief but we're not convinced this is the best or quickest way to provide it"
- "We do not believe that an unethical and corrupt government has the authority to commit future governments to their fiscal objectives in the dying days of a Parliament"
- "In the coming election campaign, Canadians will have the opportunity to compare all parties' tax platforms and choose which one they'll support"
A 2% cut to the GST represents a loss of $8.5 billion a year in Federal revenue. Why let the Liberals steal the show with modest income tax relief, when you could keep that income tax rates at present levels and dangle slashing the much maligned GST before hungry voters on the campaign trail instead?
It makes for good strategy. But it makes for poor policy.
This post tagged as: Conservative Party, Canada politics, Canadian politics,Canada election
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posted by williamNPH @ 8:49 AM
2 Comments:
I'm undecided whether or not I would like the Goodale tax cuts versus a slash to the GST. In particular what I haven't come to a conclusion on is which of the two proposals would actually help the most people?
A cut to the GST helps everyone, regardless of their income level. Goodale's plan does not guarentee that sort of "fairness". Unfortunately, not being an economist, I cannot determine the relative benifit of either plan in any monetary sense.... I'll have to wait for someone to do the math.
I don't have a hard and fast position on the matter, either.
By good strategy but poor policy, what I mean is that the CPC is revisiting old Alliance era ideas (having flirted with exactly a 2% GST cut back in 2000), and ultimately are giving up what they would really like to accomplish in exchange for a campaign "spark" issue.
Coyne had a decent opinion piece this weekend that looked at it from the conservative point of view, essentially lambasting the proposal.
There are also gathering voices speaking of the inanity of paring the GST down to its base cost of administration. In that case, why not cut it entirely? Certainly, as you suggest, those more economically eggheaded than ourselves will need to make the case pro and con in this regard.
But I generally see this entire issue as a response to lackluster polling data and dim prospects in an upcoming election. I don't think that this is really what the CPC wants, if it comes at the expense of income tax cuts. But it is something that they know will create some excitement among the electorate.
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