Monday, November 24, 2008

Harper's Neo-Con Side is Outed


How will Furious Leader cope with the recession setting in in Canada? If Harper's former chief of staff gets his way, the Boss will pursue the neo-conservative path.

"I'm hopeful there will be some ideologically driven, neo-conservative cuts to government," political scientist Tom Flanagan, a former Harper chief of staff, said in an interview.

Such cuts, he added, would be consistent with Harper's long-term goal of reducing the size and scope of government.


"I think that's always been sort of the long-term plan, the way that Stephen was going about it of first depriving the government of surpluses through cutting taxes ... You get rid of the surpluses and then it makes it easier to make some expenditure reductions."

Oh dear, they're not even trying to hide it any more. By the way, Tom, wasn't it the neo-conservative policies of deregulation and greed south of the border that brought this mess to Canada? In fact, Tom, it was just that. Deregulation, defunding and outright legislative swindles. Yes, Tom, of course we need a heaping bowl of that gruel.

That might be Harper's long-term plan but he hasn't got the guts to try it right now. He knows it'd bring down his government and give the voters the excuse they're waiting for to throw him and his ideology into the crapper where they belong.

4 comments:

Reid said...

Oh dear, they're not even trying to hide it any more. By the way, Tom, wasn't it the neo-conservative policies of deregulation and greed south of the border that brought this mess to Canada?

Actually it was Bill Clinton's policy of forcing lenders to lower their lending standards and approve more motgages to people who should never qualify for one.

The left's hatred for Bush doesn't change the fact that Bubba started this snowball rolling down the hill.

The Mound of Sound said...

Nice try Reid but no banana. None of this would have happened except for one thing - the ability to trade in mortgages bundled as "asset backed commercial paper." That, in turn, would never have gotten so insanely out of control without Phil Gramm's (then Senate Banking Committee chairman) creation of a little legislative sleight of hand that decriminalized "credit default swaps," the $60-trillion time bomb that brought ruin to the Western world.

Taking one fact in isolation is the greasy stock in trade of rightwing nutjobs but don't bring it here. FoxNews or NewsMax is where you want to spew that nonsense.

sharonapple88 said...

It's odd -- the argument behind that is that naive banks were taken in by the public.

Another point...

In 2003,
states were told they couldn't enforce predatory lending laws.

*Yes, this is Spitzer. Just before his scandal. The fact bear out what he says. Another article about the mess.

Red Tory said...

I love this blame game... Hey, "Reid" would you like me to conjure up some priceless quotes from GWB about the "ownership society"? I know it amuses self-satisfied pricks like you to blame the current economic crisis on... poor people who may have gotten in over their heads... but do you think maybe, just maybe... there are more deserving objects of your scorn and derision?