Thursday, November 08, 2007

Shocking

Are you sitting down? I know this may come as a surprise, but a new poll suggests Canadians actually like tax cuts. Go figure:
A new poll suggests the vast majority of Canadians like the Conservative government's mini-budget – especially the income-tax cuts. But it's not clear if that will translate into more votes for the Tories.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll – conducted in the three days after the Halloween economic update – found that 83 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they supported the income tax cuts.

Seventy-six per cent approved of reducing the GST by one percentage point.

The impact on Conservative fortunes was significant, but not massive, according to the numbers.

One in four Canadians said the tax cuts would make them more likely to vote Conservative, while 14 per cent said it would have the opposite effect.

Other insightful findings, 88% of Canadians are in favor of a 4 day work week, 92% think winter is too long and 83% would like to live forever.

I suppose the only grain of relevance in this poll, the fact that the income tax cuts were more popular than the GST rate drop.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well it is just part of the incorporation of US politics into Canada.

Tax cuts are the answer to everything that can befall a nation.

And if you could just give money to everyone, particularly families, with no one paying taxes, we would all experience nirvana forever.

Anonymous said...

Joseph said...
Well it is just part of the incorporation of US politics into Canada.

Get a grip! Why do you lefties always have to inject some sort of US reference into everything?

No wonder hardly anybody takes you leftbots seriously anymore.

Gayle said...

It is much easier taking some anonytroll who uses terms like "leftbots" seriously...

Sean Cummings said...

What... you don't want to live forever?

Steve V said...

"Why do you lefties always have to inject some sort of US reference into everything?"

Maybe the same reason you guys can't string two sentences together without using the lefty slur.

Gayle said...

So did anyone else hear Harper lie this afternoon in his speech?

Yesterday he completely inflated the number of days his crime bills were in the House (and failed to mention his party was responsible for much of that delay) and today he lied about the liberals' position on tax cuts.

I wonder when the media will start actually calling him on some of this??? (Rhetorical question)

Steve V said...

gayle

I missed today's speech, but I caught the distortions on the crime legislation. I saw LeBlanc tear the numbers to shreds, particularly how long parliament was absent. Too easy, bad math aside.

Dante said...

Yup...raise taxes instead of lowering them and lets let all the criminals out of jail and look to the root causes of their felonies.

Harper is so wrong it makes me mad.

Steve V said...

"Yup...raise taxes instead of lowering them and lets let all the criminals out of jail and look to the root causes of their felonies."

Dante, maybe you should take a brief moment and actually pay attention, instead of parroting the spin. The "Liberals will raise your taxes" is a complete fabrication, but you don't seem to possess the capacity to understand that. Yawn.

Oldschool said...

Taxes are lower . . . does this mean that the dream of the LPC "the progressive/socialist utopia" is off for now?????
Imagine the gall of average Canadians wanting to keep their "hard-earned" money!!!
What if they spend it on beer and popcorn???
And Joseph . . . you must be a client of the welfare state, are you worried your benefits may be cut???
When Bush cut taxes in the US . . . . revenues increased . . . . fact!!!!
Did you know that in the US the top 20% of taxpayers, that's the biggest wage earners, pay almost 70% of the income taxes . . . . the bottom 50% pay only 3% . . . IRS numbers!!!

Steve V said...

"When Bush cut taxes in the US . . . . revenues increased . . . . fact!!!!"

You think that increased, you should see the national debt that will cripple the government.


"Imagine the gall of average Canadians wanting to keep their "hard-earned" money!!!"

Have you heard of Dale Orr, you know the guy the government hires to come up with their budget numbers:

"Thus, this personal income tax 'relief' is relief only because the Conservative government took it away in their budget 2006, to have it restored again in the November, 2007 economic statement."

And, just to add noschool, the relief they took away was given by a Liberal government. You are so completely clueless it's scary.

Anonymous said...

No, OldSchool, from my days in service to my country in the military to my present civilian career, I have worked for a living and do quite well. So I guess you're old "peg-em-a-mile-away" meter is shoved up your useless ass again. But thanks for your heartfelt concern.

But the main reason for this comment is to be crystal clear on something actually related to the topic at hand . . .

"When Bush cut taxes in the US . . . . revenues increased . . . . fact!!!"

TOTAL FUCKING BULLSHIT!

Wait, I'm not sure that was clear enough so I'll repeat . . .

TOTAL FUCKING BULLSHIT!

The great myth - propogated extensively in US conservative circles (yes I'm repeating that connection again since that is where the great Canadian conservative braintrust IS invested) - that tax cuts miraculously "pay for themselves through increased government revenues" has been disproven time and again.

The result in the current US administration's administering of this LIE has been skyrocketing deficits. Even most of the "on paper" reductions touted in the deficit numbers during the year are quickly erased due to questionable (and totally non-standard) off-loading of tremendous debts (including sizable war expenditures) from the calculation of the deficit number.

Tax cuts do not pay for themselves. If a nation has a true surplus, a government can give the surplus back in the form of tax cuts or tax rebates. But no government has ever "increased revenue intake" by lowering taxes. It ain't ever happened . . . no more likely than "creating" fuel by driving slower.

That was the point of my original sarcastic comment. The idea that you can just toss some tax cut candy out and solve any issue in a nation, at any time.

Bush entered office on the whole idea that he was simply giving the money from the first US surpluses in decades "back to the people" in the form of tax cuts. The result is an ever-increasing debt that will drown the US economy for the foreseeable future.

So, OldSchool, cut down people if you want. I don't really care. And slice and dice any statistic you want in some bizarre argument of "fairness" if you must. But please don't just spew out lies and expect to not be called on them.

burlivespipe said...

Oh but that's the CON game... spin, spew and repeat.

Fact is, Harper was the first PM to RAISE personal income taxes in NINE years!

Gayle said...

And Dante show sup to prove my point.

I wonder what the conservatives will do if the media actually start calling them on their lies. Apparently they have a hard time finding any facts with which to attack the liberals.