Revenue "Neutral"?
06/06/08 11:37 AM
With any luck we
will be following and/or participating in two major
elections this coming Fall season. Our American
friends will be duking it out state by state. The
Blue States vs. the Red States as seen on those
incredibly stupid massive electronic chalk boards on
CNN and FNN ad nauseam during political news casts
which seem to run about 20 hours a day now.
In Canada, it will be Les Bleu’s vs. La Rouge with a smattering of L’orange and Vert thrown in to keep the metaphor even more colourful.
It was inevitable I suppose that nations who have been engaging in dumbing down the important debates of our day to reach the lowest common denominator as based on advertising demographics would eventually devolve into using what can only be described as the electronic equivalent of a colouring book to explain the big picture to the folks.
Colour is not the only thing that the two elections will have in common this time round. Mr. Dion has announced his party platform on Energy and it seems to be based on the fallacious notion taxing the Bad Guys and promising tax breaks to the Good Guys will work just as well in this 21st century as it did during most of the last quarter of the 20th. From a “chicken in every pot” to a “Prius in every driveway” is a short slide down a slippery slope.
I actually look forward to Mr. Dion and Mr. Obama running on a platform to raise the price on $1.35 a litre or $4.00 a gallon gasoline by 40 cents or so as well as similar increases in electricity rates, and natural gas. As Premier Campbell of BC is going to find out as the effects of his recently enacted Carbon Tax starts to show up on the Visa statement, hell hath no fury like a voter deprived of the pleasure of their Silverado.
Speaking of which, the outraged auto workers, (Do any of you also think that being an easily outraged, “git her done” kind of person is a prerequisite for admission into the CAW?) now seen on every TV channel are just the tip of the iceberg of the hundreds of thousands of people in Canada whose livelihood is or will soon be threatened by the knee jerk reaction of consumer sheep to the scary talk dripping from the mouths of weaselly politicians and others in the “How are we going to fool them today” camp.
Spend a year of so telling everyone that Oil is bad, the planet is dying, WE are dying and within 30 or 40 years we are all going to be living either underwater, or on a shore somewhere without any breathable air or drinkable water unless we use fewer plastic bags and tax people into the poorhouse if they use any form of energy and guess what? People stop buying Silverado’s and F150’s and take fewer trips to visit the folks in Parry Sound.
Next on the list of unintended consequences is the abandonment of hundreds of development plans for housing projects in what are currently known as Bedroom Communities like Barrie, Bowmanville, Milton et al right across the country. If folks can’t afford to drive cars into the city to work they will either not move out of the city in the first place or try to move back in to be closer to their jobs. Watch what that does to the affordable housing market and jobs in the construction and manufacturing industries.
All of these pinheads persist in characterising their Carbon Tax or Cap and Trade plan as “Revenue Neutral”. Dion insists, as does Mr. Campbell et al, that every penny of the $10 or $20 or $40 Billion that these taxes will vacuum out of the economy into the Federal Treasury will be returned to taxpayers as tax credits. Now, hands up anyone who believes that for a nanosecond. Nobody? I thought so. Even if you trusted their intentions, listen to their words. We will provide tax incentives for people to invest in energy saving appliances and transportation.
What they want you to believe is that everyone will get some money back. What they will do is provide tax credits for buying a Prius or an ultra efficient Zero refrigerator. I don’t know about you, but most folks who I know are driving 12 year old Ford products and paying bootleg repairmen to refill their 25 year old Kelvinator with Freon which was banned in the last fit of useless regulatory activity.
If you pay little or no taxes, which means you are likely not making much money, a $2500 tax credit to buy a $40,000 hybrid car to replace your 10 year old Chrysler minivan is of zero value. They don’t send you a cheque, they just let you deduct from taxes owing.
Revenue neutral? I don’t think so. Furthermore, if these or any taxes are honestly able to be described as REVENUE NEUTRAL, can you understand why they would impose them at all? I mean seriously, they are saying they will take Billions of dollars out of your left pocket, launder it through the machinery in Ottawa and then they promise that they will put EVERY PENNY back into your right pocket. Why bother?
Why bother indeed!
Mr. Dion and Mr. Obama and all of their cowardlly, stay in power at any cost, fellow travellers, in trying to appease their left wing, green focussed, vocal voting minorities will provide easy pickings for the Bleu’s and the Blue’s this fall.
30
In Canada, it will be Les Bleu’s vs. La Rouge with a smattering of L’orange and Vert thrown in to keep the metaphor even more colourful.
It was inevitable I suppose that nations who have been engaging in dumbing down the important debates of our day to reach the lowest common denominator as based on advertising demographics would eventually devolve into using what can only be described as the electronic equivalent of a colouring book to explain the big picture to the folks.
Colour is not the only thing that the two elections will have in common this time round. Mr. Dion has announced his party platform on Energy and it seems to be based on the fallacious notion taxing the Bad Guys and promising tax breaks to the Good Guys will work just as well in this 21st century as it did during most of the last quarter of the 20th. From a “chicken in every pot” to a “Prius in every driveway” is a short slide down a slippery slope.
I actually look forward to Mr. Dion and Mr. Obama running on a platform to raise the price on $1.35 a litre or $4.00 a gallon gasoline by 40 cents or so as well as similar increases in electricity rates, and natural gas. As Premier Campbell of BC is going to find out as the effects of his recently enacted Carbon Tax starts to show up on the Visa statement, hell hath no fury like a voter deprived of the pleasure of their Silverado.
Speaking of which, the outraged auto workers, (Do any of you also think that being an easily outraged, “git her done” kind of person is a prerequisite for admission into the CAW?) now seen on every TV channel are just the tip of the iceberg of the hundreds of thousands of people in Canada whose livelihood is or will soon be threatened by the knee jerk reaction of consumer sheep to the scary talk dripping from the mouths of weaselly politicians and others in the “How are we going to fool them today” camp.
Spend a year of so telling everyone that Oil is bad, the planet is dying, WE are dying and within 30 or 40 years we are all going to be living either underwater, or on a shore somewhere without any breathable air or drinkable water unless we use fewer plastic bags and tax people into the poorhouse if they use any form of energy and guess what? People stop buying Silverado’s and F150’s and take fewer trips to visit the folks in Parry Sound.
Next on the list of unintended consequences is the abandonment of hundreds of development plans for housing projects in what are currently known as Bedroom Communities like Barrie, Bowmanville, Milton et al right across the country. If folks can’t afford to drive cars into the city to work they will either not move out of the city in the first place or try to move back in to be closer to their jobs. Watch what that does to the affordable housing market and jobs in the construction and manufacturing industries.
All of these pinheads persist in characterising their Carbon Tax or Cap and Trade plan as “Revenue Neutral”. Dion insists, as does Mr. Campbell et al, that every penny of the $10 or $20 or $40 Billion that these taxes will vacuum out of the economy into the Federal Treasury will be returned to taxpayers as tax credits. Now, hands up anyone who believes that for a nanosecond. Nobody? I thought so. Even if you trusted their intentions, listen to their words. We will provide tax incentives for people to invest in energy saving appliances and transportation.
What they want you to believe is that everyone will get some money back. What they will do is provide tax credits for buying a Prius or an ultra efficient Zero refrigerator. I don’t know about you, but most folks who I know are driving 12 year old Ford products and paying bootleg repairmen to refill their 25 year old Kelvinator with Freon which was banned in the last fit of useless regulatory activity.
If you pay little or no taxes, which means you are likely not making much money, a $2500 tax credit to buy a $40,000 hybrid car to replace your 10 year old Chrysler minivan is of zero value. They don’t send you a cheque, they just let you deduct from taxes owing.
Revenue neutral? I don’t think so. Furthermore, if these or any taxes are honestly able to be described as REVENUE NEUTRAL, can you understand why they would impose them at all? I mean seriously, they are saying they will take Billions of dollars out of your left pocket, launder it through the machinery in Ottawa and then they promise that they will put EVERY PENNY back into your right pocket. Why bother?
Why bother indeed!
Mr. Dion and Mr. Obama and all of their cowardlly, stay in power at any cost, fellow travellers, in trying to appease their left wing, green focussed, vocal voting minorities will provide easy pickings for the Bleu’s and the Blue’s this fall.
30
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