It's Time For Them To Go

Pathetic. That's the only word I can think of to describe the budget that the Liberals brought before the House on Wednesday. It's nothing more than the nonsensical scribbling of exhausted and inferior minds.

The budget wasn't the product of a "moderate" or "pragmatic" thought process on the part of the government. It was the result of a no-thought process. It's a bunch of half-remembered promises only partially realized, at best.

Let's consider, for just a moment, some of the key items.

There's the military spending. The number is meant to sound impressive: $12 Billion over five years. To begin, that number is totally insufficient. Even if all $12 Billion actually went to the Armed Forces, that would mean a mere $2.4 Billion each year. It would mean a military budget of just a little more than 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (or something like half of the NATO average). And all of that, of course, applies only if they actually get the money.

However, if one actually examines the budget documents, we find that, next year, the Armed Forces are set to receive only an additional $500 Million. That's not enough for anything. Given that the Liberals claim that they intend to actually follow through upon the Prime Minister's insta-plan for five thousand extra troops (and presumably the money for that is in this additional funding), we might find the forces even more stretched than they are today.

But, of course, the point of the additional funding isn't to actually improve the military: it's to give the Liberals political cover if anyone complains about military funding in the next election. It's to try and paint the Tories as extremists. "We've already given the Armed Forces $12 Billion, the only reason you'd need more to that is to build Aircraft Carriers and Moon Bases," etc.

The "tax relief" contained in the budget is worse than a joke. Under this bold plan, the basic personal deduction will go up by $2000 over the next four years. That would mean a tax savings of, at the most, five hundred dollars or so for the average family.

Of course, the plan is deceptive. The basic personal deduction is indexed to inflation so, in any case, it would be going up by $1000 over the next few years. In other words, the grand "tax relief" in this budget means, at the most, $250 for a family.

The rest of the budget is a further example of the joy that the Liberals take in wasting the money that we earn. There's a billion dollars in this budget for their "National Child Care Program." Thus, we now get the joy of paying for other people to take care of other people's children. There's another few billion thrown at the Liberals' Kyoto fetish. There's $60 million in there for the CBC to produce news programs for no one to watch.

If the Tories aren't willing to vote against this garbage, they might as well get twenty of their MP's to resign and let the Liberals run candidates unopposed so that they can have a majority and we'll no longer have to listen to endless prattle about their "minority government."

In the last years of the Chrétien Government, it often seemed as though the Liberals were drifting aimlessly. We were told that this would all come to a spectacular end during the long reign of Paul the Great, who would lift our spirits and heal the pains of our souls. What stuff! This government has less fight in it than King Jean had in one finger. If we can't beat these clowns, then our choices are very rapidly reduced to surrender or rebellion.

Truly, during days like these, I often daydream about playing the role of Leo Amery in 1940 in the House of Commons. I just want to look across at the government benches. I want to stare across and quote Cromwell.

"You have sat here too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go."