Tax cuts if necessary but not necessarily tax cuts

Surplus ballooning under Tories?

Yes, I know, the title is a bit of a recalibrated effort on my part regarding the famous line made by former Prime Minister Mackenzie King on the draft.

However, according to Globe and Mail columnist Neil Reynolds, the above statement pretty much nails the position the Harper administration has taken [thus far] towards broadbased tax relief for Canadians. Why? Because much like the many governments that have preceded them, they are enamoured by their spending powers which in turn can be used during a general election to woo undecided voters. As Reynolds noted, this seems to be the congenital reason why the Prime Minister still seems to be wavering on whether ot not to make tax cuts a priority for his government:

Mr. Harper, however, elaborated. "First and foremost," he said, "this government is committed to running responsible fiscal policy where we can not only balance our budgets but continue to run modest surpluses so we can pay down debt. That's important. After that, we will, obviously, look at a range of tax reduction measures as well as investment in spending priorities where we think they are relevant to voters."

Here the important word, the predictive word, is the final one: "voters." He could have said "Canadians." He didn't. (All voters are Canadians but not all Canadians are voters.)

Here Mr. Harper says explicitly that the federal government will spend its discretionary revenue - all $10-billion a year of it - on things that it believes will prove "relevant to voters" in the next federal election.

Well, since the [government] still seems to be rather unconvinced on whether or not tax cuts should be a high priority, I will give them a little advice on what I believe is relevant to voters, or better yet, taxpayers. That being, the massive surplus sitting in Ottawa.

During the last federal budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty reported that the surplus for the entire year would be $3.3 billion dollars. Unfortunately, the best kept secret in Ottawa is that the surplus in the first two months alone was $3.5 billion --- a number which already exceeds what the Finance Minister said the surplus would be for the entire year. Let's just say that's a far cry from running modest surpluses to pay down the debt.

So, should this be a major priority relevant to voters? You're darn right it should as it is high time that the government put an end to managing massive surpluses, and instead, they should make a serious effort to put more of the surplus (our hard-earned cash) back in our pockets via a tax cut. Trust me, it's the right thing to do.