Monday, May 25, 2009

EI Is As The Liberals Made It

So it's kind of rich that they're suddenly acting as if it's the Conservatives' thing, rather than something they inherited from the Liberals.

All of a sudden the Liberals want to make it ridiculously easy to get, drive up payroll taxes to finance the increase in the number of people drawing on it and contribute to a new, defeatist, why-work-when-you-don't-have-to attitude? Sheeeesh! They want to do to the entire country now what they did to the Maritimes in the past!

Indeed, the Liberals are showing their radical, deep-red socialist colors. Just like Obama. And just like Trudeau, who brought economically-and-socially-devastating socialism into Canada.

ht: NNW

Changing the program from “Unemployment” to “Employment Insurance” in 1996, Paul Martin made it progressively more difficult to qualify for benefits by increasing the time one needed to work. In fact, a “significant” part of the federal fiscal surpluses of the Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin years have come from abusing the Employment Insurance program. While the current Liberal party uses the surpluses as an example of their strong fiscal management style, the fact is that premiums from every working Canadian from 1994 onwards produced surpluses of several billion dollars every year that were then funneled directly in general revenues. A program meant to “help” workers, was then used to pay down the federal debt, creating an unrealistic perception of Liberal fiscal management. That cumulative surplus hit $54.4 billion by March 31, 2007, and remains the largest misappropriated tax on Canadians in history.

Rather than fighting over extending Employment Insurance, however, the current Liberal party which takes great responsibility in perpetuating this misappropriation of taxpayer dollars, should work toward seeing through this so-called “stimulus” to the economy in June. As Kevin Gaudet of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation writes, “After all, the best cure for unemployment is a new job.”