[andyt]

And pay off the debt?

So does anybody have any brilliant ideas on what the federal government should do? I know we all want them to eliminate waste, but all the newspaper articles I read say that there isn't really that much fat in the system. Most of the money goes to transfers to people or provinces. Do we want to cut pensions? Cut health care? The military? Where should they cut?

Or should they raise taxes? They've just lowered the corporate tax rate, yet still give billions in direct subsidies to business. Should they eliminate some of the many tax loopholes they have instituted. Do we need that sports deduction for kids. Or that new one for two parent families where only one works? All sort of crazy exemptions in the tax law that make it complex to fill out a tax return and cost the govt money in lost taxes.

Anybody have any brilliant ideas?

[Proculation]

Stop subsidies and lay off half the bureaucrats.

[andyt]

Proculation wrote:

Stop subsidies and lay off half the bureaucrats.

That would do it, would it?

[sandorski]

There's really not much that needs to be done. We went into the Recession in good shape and all we really need to do is to ride out the Recovery and not Spend foolishly.

[andyt]

sandorski wrote:

There's really not much that needs to be done. We went into the Recession in good shape and all we really need to do is to ride out the Recovery and not Spend foolishly.

So the huge debt we've amassed will just take care of itself? And after we've ridden out the recovery, it will be business as usual and big bucks flowing in? All the indicators pointing to another recession are just bs?

[stokes]

-Stop Foreign Aid 100%
-Stop giving to the UN (they are useless)
-Stop Universal Health Care or make it optional for those who can contribute more.
-Force Parliament to work to save $400 million
-Stop paying Natives to live in squalor they can work like the rest of us
-Eliminate tax shelters - Income trusts were a good start
-Tax lottery winners on winnings, not just the interest they make
-Make school days longer and have them open fewer days- my daughters school took 2 weeks for spring break and saved $100,00
-Let museums, theaters and such do their own fund raising if people dont want to go to them why spend tax money to keep them going

These are just a few of my suggestions and I am sure I can think of a few more but they would be totally right wing!!

[andyt]

Our foreign aid and UN expenditures are miniscule parts of the budget.

Health care in Canada costs about 10% of GDP. Health care in the US is at 16% - more now with Obama care which just gives more business to private insurers.

400 million is diddly squat.

I agree about the natives part, but you would need some sort of expensive transition program otherwise they would just drop like flies if you cut funding. And they are protected in the constitution and by treaties etc. Very difficult

Eliminate tax shelters - I like it. Especially for corporations.

Taxing lotter winners - doubt it would bring in that much.

Making school days longer has all sorts of problems and I doubt it would save much.

Remember, we're looking for billions of dollars here.

[stokes]

If 1 school can save $100,000 of their operating costs by closing down for 1 week imagine the savings if all schools did it, that would save more than a billion Canada-wide considering most cities have at least ten schools and the major ones may have 20 or 30....if not more.

Healthcare in Canada is the single highest cost that all governments pay to the point that it is higher than CPP, Education and the Military combined.

Dont forget that minuscule savings will pay-off in the long run. $300 mil here, $400 mil there and next thing you know you have real money.

Increase GST to 7% until things are paid off then eliminate it.

[andyt]

stokes wrote:

Healthcare in Canada is the single highest cost that all governments pay to the point that it is higher than CPP, Education and the Military combined.

When I was a student in the US twenty years ago, if I had wanted to buy healthcare it would have cost $3000 a month for a family of four. Would you like to pay rates like that. Rates that include co-pays that can bankrupt you, and being denied coverage for pre-existing conditions? Plus the US govt spends a lot paying to treat poor people with serious conditions that would have cost a lot less if they'd been treated earlier. But since they had no coverage they didn't go to the doctor for them.

For most people, your employer pays those insurance costs. Wouldn't you like $3000 more in your pocket because your employer doesn't have to pay them? I think privatizing medicare to copy the US is a false economy. I'm very much open to looking at European systems that combine private and public health care. But our costs are pretty well in line with those. Does it really make a diff if the burden is shifted from the govt (ie us) to us directly?

[Bruce_the_vii]

I read that we have a federal structural deficit and will have to cut or raise taxes eventually.

I've posted this ad infinitum but the labour force yo yo's and getting people back in the labour force and working over the next five years would produce tax revenues but not increase government costs. You'd have to half immigration to Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. It'd produce a per cent of GDP more revenues for the federal government.

Also the statistics I read are the top 20% are doing very well. Working from memory the top 20% take home 45% of the income. They have moved ahead. So if your going to raise taxes put a sur tax on those that can afford it until the deficit is gone.

[andyt]

Bruce_the_vii wrote:

Also the statistics I read are the top 20% are doing very well. Working from memory the top 20% take home 45% of the income. They have moved ahead. So if your going to raise taxes put a sur tax on those that can afford it until the deficit is gone.

Now this, of course I can agree with. But lets end corporate welfare too.

[Proculation]

andyt wrote:

stokes wrote:

Healthcare in Canada is the single highest cost that all governments pay to the point that it is higher than CPP, Education and the Military combined.

When I was a student in the US twenty years ago, if I had wanted to buy healthcare it would have cost $3000 a month for a family of four. Would you like to pay rates like that. Rates that include co-pays that can bankrupt you, and being denied coverage for pre-existing conditions? Plus the US govt spends a lot paying to treat poor people with serious conditions that would have cost a lot less if they'd been treated earlier. But since they had no coverage they didn't go to the doctor for them.

For most people, your employer pays those insurance costs. Wouldn't you like $3000 more in your pocket because your employer doesn't have to pay them? I think privatizing medicare to copy the US is a false economy. I'm very much open to looking at European systems that combine private and public health care. But our costs are pretty well in line with those. Does it really make a diff if the burden is shifted from the govt (ie us) to us directly?

Maybe the costs are in line with them, but the quality is incomparable. I've heard so much stories of French from France who had to go into one of our hospital. They were frightneded for years.

[andyt]

OK, so it's a matter of re-organizing what we do. For one thing, I bet we pay our doctors way more than the French do. Probably some savings there that could be used in other areas,

[Bruce_the_vii]

Corporate welfare is a misnomer. These are investments that return taxes including the income taxes that the workers pay. Something like Bombardier's airplane division employees high price workers that pay a lot of tax. All government's do it now, businesses that have the economic power can negotiate for a break. All any government will say to strategic subsidies is "we are open for business".

[stokes]

I never said to eliminate publicly funded health care, but those that can afford more should be paying more, and costs should be frozen for a few years as it is ballooning out of control due to our aging population, just because we can keep someone alive after a lifetime of bad decisions doesnt mean we have to....just sayin

I also agree with Bruce, but those in the top income brackets do not have to stay here to earn their money, its been proven a few times