The Harper Budget

The first Harper budget is balanced and all about tax relief, in so many small portions it's nearly impossible to keep track of.  The Globe has as good a summary as I've seen so far:

• 29 tax saving measures, $35-billion in overall spending/tax relief (lowest rate increases from 15 to 15.5 - why not just leave it!  Maybe there will be a house amendment here)
• $8.67-billion in two years for 1 percentage point GST cut, but still an $8-billion surplus
• $3.6-billion for child benefit ($100 a month per child) effective July 1
• $3.3-billion to provinces for post-secondary education, housing and other issues.
• $1.6-billion on community security, border and health
• $1.5-billion for agriculture
• $1.4-billion for policing, border security and public safety
• $1.3-billion for infrastructure
• $1.12-billion in the next two years for defence for recruitment and buying equipment

Business likes it, as should most tax payers (up to $795 per person?).  Overall the budget is very, very complex, but that's the nature of a modern budget and the extent to which government intrudes in to every area of life.  It cuts spending (!), but has some stuff in there for the left too, (post secondary, housing, etc).  Native groups are happy with it, given the committments.  The left wont be, but that's to be expected.  The Bloq are apparently going to support it, while the Liberal will no doubt oppose it.

 

Has anyone noticed that since this budget cuts spending and taxes, we are moving to the fiscal right of the US?  But our taxes are still much higher than theirs, so maybe not. 

 

And in other news, the Conservatives are ahead of the Bloq in Quebec , 35-31.  Wow.  Oh, and then there's this on the fiscal imbalance.  Classical federalsim, and a radical change from the Liberal view.  Wow the Globe really has good coverage today.