05) FIGURES DON'T LIE, BUT....

People's Voice Editorial

            The so‑called "independent" Parliamentary Budget Office, headed up by PM Harper's pal Jean‑Denis Fréchette, tells us that Conservative tax cuts have "saved" Canadians $30 billion, including personal income tax reductions of $17 billion, and the federal share of revenue loss GST/HST of $13 billion. That works out to about $800 per resident of Canada.

            However, figures can be twisted for a political agenda. Canadians for Tax Fairness notes that the top 20 per cent of income earners got $10.9 billion, or 36 per cent of the total. Meanwhile, while the bottom 20 per cent got $1.9 billion, or only six per cent. The lowest income group gain less than $500 in tax reductions annually, while the top 20 per cent rake in almost $2,000 a year.

            Nor did the Budget Office suggest that $30 billion could pay for affordable child care or housing, or cut post‑secondary tuition, or improve our medicare system, or provide clean drinking water for Aboriginal communities. Sadly, none of the parties in Parliament used the report to raise such ideas. Instead, even the NDP remains committed to the neoliberal dogma of tax‑cutting and 'balanced budgets", which allow the wealthy and the corporations to keep widening the income gap.

            And it gets worse. That $30 billion figure does not include the ongoing impact of the huge tax cuts brought in by (then) Finance Minister Paul Martin in 2000. Nor does it count Conservative cuts to corporate taxes. Canadians for Tax Fairness calculates that the total lost revenues from all these sources adds up to nearly $80 billion annually. The federal government today has annual revenues of about $230 billion ‑ not the $310 billion which it could be receiving. In our next issue, we'll examine what could be done with that amount of extra revenue. Until then, PV readers can probably come up with some excellent suggestions!

(The above article is from the June 16-30, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)