Story here.
ht: National Newswatch
An overwhelming majority of Canadians say Finance Minister Jim Flaherty should slash the federal budget to balance the books, according to a new poll for Canwest News Service and Global National.Well, I'm part of that majority. There's still plenty (billions of dollars annually) of wasteful (useless Gun Registry, for example) and even harmful spending (HRCs, for example) spending that could be eliminated to more than avoid deficit and, in fact, enable the continuing paydown of the national debt!Only a handful say Mr. Flaherty should raise taxes to meet any shortfalls as government revenues shrink because of the slowing economy. And just 43 per cent of those surveyed by Ipsos Reid say it's all right with them if Mr. Flaherty decided to run a budget deficit to get the country through a rough economic patch.
John Wright, Ipsos Reid's senior vice-president, said his firm's polling data on consumer confidence and job anxiety indicate that Canadians are not yet seized with any urgency about the economy and do not feel that the economic slowdown has turned into a crisis requiring extreme measures.
"I think there's a disconnect where people are saying it might get really bad, but it's not bad now and I don't think it'll hurt me," Mr. Wright said. "Which means that, so far as the checklist in how they see government proceeding on this front, we haven't reached the point where, yes, it's OK to do deficits. They're saying your checklist is to make sure there's no fat in the system."
This is the Conservative government's cue to cut wasteful spending. Something they should've done already anyway. They have to do it now, obviously!
Mr. Harper, tear down that wasteful wall of useless, harmful spending!
