Good politics and bad policy.
ht: NNW
You know how talking heads, "experts" and politcians have been saying that cutting the GST, as the Harper Conservatives have done, is "good politics, bad policy"?
And remember how the Liberals blasted the Tories for cutting the hated GST by a couple percentage points, and even openly mused about raising it back to where it was?
Looks like the shoe is on the other foot now.
Imagine being able to be "laid off" after working only 360 hours (or just 45 full-time days), and then getting a check for doing nothing the rest of the year.
This is what the Liberals under Ignatieff and the rest of the socialist parties want to be done.
See? Ignatieff and the Liberals are socialists. They want to make Canadians dependent on government most of the time for their livelihood.
The socialists want to make another entitlement program which will bring in votes for the wrong reasons.
They want to send the wrong signals to Canadians, that is, that we don't have to be self-sufficient, that we don't have to work much at all, etc... that the state will handle everything most of the time... don't worry, be happy, etc...
"Mr. Ignatieff is trying to get the Bloc and the NDP back in a coalition with him," Mr. Harper said after making an infrastructure-funding announcement in Calgary.
"They are suggesting that what we should do is bring in an EI system where any Canadian, anywhere in the country, in perpetuity, could work 45 days and collect EI benefits for a period up to a year. This is an absurdity." The Prime Minister said that those changes would have "nothing to do with the real problems of this recession," insisting the challenge will be helping those unemployed for long periods and in need of training to find a job.
"When a long-term unemployed worker thinks that his EI premiums are going to go to that kind of EI system, I don't think that is something the people of Canada are going to accept," he said.
Ok, so the socialists, led by Mr. Ignatieff, claim that they only want there to be 19 weeks of benefits for those who work just 45 days.
But, still, it's bad policy to say we only have to work 45 days and then get a check for doing nothing for 19 weeks. Work 45 days, live easy for 19 weeks, over and over again. It'd become an industry in which the taxpayers subsidize lazy bums all the time. It'd really hurt Canada's economic competitiveness. It'd kill the desire to work to advance oneself. It'd create false labor shortages and drive business out of Canada.
Sure, it'll get votes for the socialists, but it's BAD POLICY to bring in such a neo-communist scheme.
It's far, far, far WORSE than merely cutting the GST a couple percentage points, don't you agree?
Again the Liberals and their neocommunist comrades are pitting one group of Canadians against another, just so they can win via electoral calculus. This is wrong, unethical, immoral, nasty, you name it. Greedy politicians willing to devastate Canada's economy and society just so they can lyingly claim to be "caring and compassionate" about "the unemployed".
As a Maritimer since 1978, I've seen the consequences of such over-generous neocommunist social programming and dependence-fostering. I've seen how it's good politics and bad policy to do what Michael Ignatieff and his neocommunist comrades want to do. It's been tried here before, and we know what happened. Never again- the Maritimes don't want to go back to have-not status and once again acquire a reputation as lazy, as being of the attitude "give me a check for doing nothing", of being defeatist. The Ignatieff Policy would bring all this back!
No doubt it's a vote-getter.
And the Liberals see this policy as an opportunity to cheat their way out of the political wilderness by once again becoming as neocommunist as Trudeau was.
See, Michael Ignatieff IS a LEFTIST. A Socialist. A neocommunist. An opportunist.
Michael Ignatieff doesn't care about Canada or Canadians. He only cares about winning the next election by BRIBING Canadians.
No wonder the Harper Conservatives don't want to play that game.
I'd rather see an election over the issue than see the Harper Conservatives cave in just to prevent one by bringing in very bad policy.
If Iggy wants an election over the issue, fine. Let's roll, then.
Also, how come the Big Media isn't making a big stink about how bad the socialists' policy desire would be for Canada and Canada's economy? Why did they make a big stink over the GST cut, but they won't make a big stink over THIS, which is infinitely worse economically and socially?
I guess the Big Media doesn't care, either. They just want their guys to win, so they'll hold off on criticism of their guys' bad policies.
