Deficits. Again.

Flaherty insists that the federal government will stay in the black, and yet, there continue to be whispers of a return to deficits. After the tough choices made by the Liberals in the 1990s, it would be a shame for the Conservatives to wipe all of that out.

Besides, they cut taxes, isn't that supposed to raise revenues according to the Wall Street Journal's economic theology?

No Tax Break For You!

I suppose I could call this the Soup Nazi budget, because, I don't think that I personally get anything out of it. In many regards, that's fine, I'm a simple man not pining for tax breaks or other goodies. There is however one thing that particularly sticks in my craw:

Everyone who has kids gets a tax break (yes, poor families need it, I don't begrudge low-income single moms one cent of what they'll get). Does everyone with kids need such a break. The census just came out and Canada already has one of the fastest growing populations in the industrialized world. Sure our growth comes through immigration, but growth is growth.

Either way, what bugs me is that every household gets this. Go past an affluent suburban high school and see what the parents (or the kids) are driving. What does a family that bustles about in a Porsche Cayenne really need in the way of child tax breaks? What will a few hundred get them anyway? A tank of gas?

Harper Can't Get an Election

It looks like the Bloc is going to support the budget. This is probably actually a blessing in disguise for the Liberals and the NDP. There are some hard right undercurrents in the budget and they still won't take away their income tax increase on the poor, but I don't think that it's the sort of thing that can get the bulk of Canadians really worked up. There's just as much a risk that the electorate would punish the opposition parties for dragging them to the polls again.

The opposition parties need to make the government fall on a flash of deep blue. I'm convinced that the Stephen Harper who fawns over the GOP and who ran the far-right National Citizens Coalition is still lurking behind Mr. Nice-guy hockey dad. The trick is to get Harper to tip his hand, get him to show how he'd really govern if he got a majority.