Canada's parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page has been exonerated by legitimate economists of accusations by pretend-economist Stephen Harper that Page's deficit warnings were "dumb."
The self-styled "Smartest Man in the Room" and part-time chair kicker had a sphincter malfunction when the budget officer said Canada was now running a structural deficit and would either have to raise taxes or cut spending before the budget would ever return to surplus.
"Not So" yelled the indignant man who has shown himself persistently inept and wrong-minded about this recession from well before it began. Furious that the budget officer should deign to tell Canadians the truth, Harper slammed Page, saying, "That’s a very dumb policy and, to the extent, frankly, that the parliamentary budget officer suggested it, it’s a dumb position.”
Of course Kevin Page's "dumb policy" was to presume he was able to speak candidly and honestly with the Canadian public and not first submit his remarks for "adjustment" by Harper's political commissars within the PMO. As the folks at DND and EnviroCan know, that sort of thing is a hanging offence in Harper's government.
Harper claims Canada's federal government will be rolling in a $700-million surplus by 2013-2014 (provided always that the Tories are not in power by then). Harper also claims the earth is 6,000 years old, global warming is a myth and tinfoil hats really do make watching television much more enjoyable. The insolent Page, however, foresees a deficit of $16.7 billion by then.
Harper's position is backed by, well, nobody except possibly his cherubic little finance minister with the impossibly red face. Page is backed by real economists:
“Kevin’s numbers are quite close to the numbers we put out,” said Toronto Dominion Bank’s chief economist Don Drummond. “It depends on whether you think we can grow our way out of this deficit and our view, and Kevin Page’s view, is that’s not the most likely outcome.”
Veteran Bay Street economist Dale Orr also reportedly backed up Page’s numbers in a statement his Toronto-based consultancy released yesterday. It predicted the budget deficit in 2013-14 at around $15 to $20 billion and suggested new taxes or cuts to spending would have to be considered.
4 comments:
Mound
And, don't forget "real economists" that this government say fit to hire on a few occasions. I should pull up some quotes about what they've said about Drummond. Come to think it of it, what did the government say about Page when they hired him too? So, the logical conclusion, this government is worse than we thought, they hire the dumb. It's an interesting box they're in these days.
Once again Steve, Harper appears like he just really doesn't care any more. What's left in it for him? He's gotten as far as he can without winning a majority. Governing in a deep recession that he doesn't understand and can't handle surely isn't much fun. He doesn't have any All Stars in his cabinet capable of running interference for him. Now he's facing a six month march to Copenhagen that could foreclose his ability to stall on carbon emissions controls.
I really can't see any incentive for this guy to stay. I think he's quit but just hasn't told anybody yet.
Well, Harper has a masters degree in economics and thus considers himself to be an expert in the topic. Having a degree, though, doesn't have to mean a thing and in his case, it obviously doesn't. Another possibility is that he wants to have an image of a nice guy who doesn't want to raise taxes or cut spending. Best regards, Jay.
Harper didn't get into politics to run huge deficits and churn out 'stimulus' budgets. His vision of government is directly antithetical to the position he's found himself in as prime minister.
Whatever insights Harper achieved from his economics education were overwhelmed by his political instincts which accounts for why he wasn't able to acknowledge what was coming in time to actually do something to cushion the blow.
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