Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Are We Filing Our Taxes In October Now?

I must admit, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this manufactured concern over the Home Renovation Tax Credit. According to the website, a line will be included in NEXT YEAR'S filing to allow people to claim their rebate. Since we might have an election in October, November, you get the drift, how exactly does that hinder the NEW government from honoring the commitment, doing whatever is required so that Canadians are covered?:
If we form government, there's plenty of time to pass legislation to ensure this happens before tax time," Liberal spokeswoman Jill Fairbrother said.

You mean, the new government can introduce legislation if need be, it has that type of power? Well hang on, what if it's another minority, maybe the Conservative opposition would block quick passage. Can we pin down Harper, or his successor, that the opposition will help the Liberal government ensure the rebate remains for NEXT YEAR'S tax filing?

Anyways, this attack line from the Conservatives is really a side issue in the grand scheme, because the vote won't happen, we'll all be dead anyways. Expect a John Baird presser tomorrow arguing that not only do the Liberals want to kill the economy with an election, they want to kill you too.

10 comments:

Jay said...

I'm done. Elections and H1N1?

I have a feeling I will see the statue of liberty's head tomorrow while being accompanied by two talking ape men.

The only question that remains is how could you be so stupid and get a job as a writer?

Oh.

Its the Sun.

Nevermind...

rockfish said...

Grits can easily diffuse this CON ploy by giving a pre-election jab -- not only will they re-table the tax credit, they'll extend it, and add a payroll tax break to reno companies who add staff during the period.

Anonymous said...

I don't blame Harper for this line of attack ... it's smart politics. I think rockfish's idea is the best response as well. So why isn't Ignatieff saying it? More importantly, why is it that there seems to have been no plan leading up to this announcement of forcing an election. Surely to goodness they looked at the legislative agenda and what they were going to vote against as a result of Ignatieff's announcement!!! Ignatieff needs to get out of the lecture room and into the political boxing ring otherwise we're going to get our @$$ whooped.

Jon Pertwee said...

anon sounds a bit like a concern troll...

MERBOY said...

Anonymous said...

"I don't blame Harper for this line of attack ... it's smart politics."

Smart... or yet another example of how the Conservatives have been abusing their power?

Can you imagine a company putting out a major ad campaign and spending millions of dollars promoting some sort of deal that wasn't even a sure thing... disgusting.

That fact that they're now using it as a political weapon makes it even more repulsive.

Steve V said...

"More importantly, why is it that there seems to have been no plan leading up to this announcement of forcing an election."

That just speaks to your own voluntary ignorance.

Mark McLaughlin said...

"Since we might have an election in October, November, you get the drift, how exactly does that hinder the NEW government from honoring the commitment, doing whatever is required so that Canadians are covered?"

Since the GST promise. Since the NAFTA promise. Since just about every *big* promise the Liberals have ever made during an election.

It's certainly a real possibility that a Liberal government will not honour it. It's certainly real enough that a Conservative campaign can exploit the fear of losing it as a ballot question and base motivator.

It's likely to be even more powerful than a promise of something new. People already have the expectation that they will be getting that money and made plans based on it.

All the Cons need to do is create a fear, and they can win that issue. I wouldn't underestimate the power this one will have.

Steve V said...

Is it okay to under-estimate your hardly compelling POWER of persuasion?

Niles said...

I've been expecting that renovation credit to be waved in people's faces as vote buying since I first discovered it was not even legal yet.

The money the Cons have pumped into advertising the credit on tv has been going on for months.

And boom, depressingly and predictably right on schedule, the second Ignatieff said anything, the first threat out of the gate to the electorate was the reno credit being 'denied' by the Liberals if they got in power instead of the concerned compassionate Conservatives.

That's the small home-owning middle class *personal level* ploy that people understand to literally hit them in their backyards. People that I've talked to really, seriously don't understand that the credit was not passed into law yet, because they couldn't understand how it could be touted in media to people if it wasn't able to be claimed on taxes. So, instead they thought I was either mistaken, or lying.

It's been a rough summer.

Steve V said...

Bob Rae and I are so in tune ;)

"Everybody knows… first of all, you don’t fill out your income taxes, last time I looked, until the new year"