Friday, June 20, 2008

Suggestion to M. Dion

Following up on my last post regarding M. Dion's proposals on how to tax carbon emissions and putting it back in the form of tax cuts:

Emphasize over and over again the benefit this would have for seniors and for people with children. Point out this will mean more money in their pockets, tax free, each and every month; that this shows a real commitment in the goal to substantially reduce levels of poverty to meet the 30-50 goals (30% reduction of the number of people living below the poverty line, 50% less children living in poverty; both goals reached over five years.)

It's important to contrast how this will help value families, to the hot hair of PMS' claim to support family values. How $100 per month fully taxable per child under six is much different than $100 or more per month tax free for every kid under eighteen.

That low income seniors deserve a roughly equivalent break to wealthy seniors (a $600 per year increase in the Supplement is roughly the same as what richer seniors who don't get the GIS get in their pocketboot, after taking into account the doubling of the pension amount, at an average 40% bracket).

That even single people are going to get modest help -- unlike with the Cons, where the group I'm in gets squat.

In short, don't get Swift Boated, M. Dion. Don't allow yourself to be Swift Boated. Fight fire with fire, day in and day out. Act as if the election campaign started yesterday, no matter when you actually decide to pull the plug for real.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The MUSH sector (municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals) is clearly a Provincial responsibility. Now consider Provincial funding implicatons with rising costs as a result of Dion's bull tax shift plan. The MUSH sector is the one that operates huge institutions that require heating and cooling, fleets of school buses, garbage trucks, snow plows, maintenance vehicles, police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, transit vehicles ...

Where are they going to get the money to cope with the "tax shift" ?

I looked high and low throughout the plan and could find no reference to either the Provinces or Municipalites in the Liberal's grand plans.

Ontario, already teetering on the brink of have-not status has little in the cupboard to deal with the cost increases to follow as a result of the tax shift. That leaves three choices, either the Provinces have to raise taxes, the Municipalities have to raise taxes or most likely of all, both will.

I wouldn't count on receiving any of those tax benefits the Liberals are promising. In much the same way Paul Martin balanced the federal budget by massive cuts in federal transfers, Stephane Dion and the Liberals plan to shift the burden of paying for their "revenue neutral" plan on to the backs of the Provinces and Municipalities. Ultimately, that still means you.

Anonymous said...

At least all families get the $100 a month. Under Dion's plan, families with a decent family income do not qualify for the extra child benefit. This is not about the environment - it's about good old-fashioned socialist income redistribution. Why work hard? The Liberal Party will take care of us...

Chris

Anonymous said...

You have just made the argument against the Green Shift. Do not tell people what it accomplishes(nothing), buy their love. Typical Liberal strategy...buy people's votes with their own money.
problem is...Mr. Harper is going to dance rings around Mr. Dion on this issue.
Even that foo Mike Duffy was non-plussed.
You truly cannot make a silk purse out of a pig's ear.