Saturday, January 07, 2006

Tories to Raise Taxes

(Cross-posted at Centrerion)

You read that right.

If the Tories form government, they plan to raise taxes. Harper won't talk about it on camera, for obvious reasons, but nevertheless part of the Tory election platform is to raise personal income taxes.

The worst part? They're going to raise them on the poor. That's right, the poor. So in one broad swoop, the Conservatives buck their strength as tax-cutters, and re-inforce the common attack levelled against neo-liberal types that they want to screw the poor. Brilliant move, guys!

The plan is simple: an increase for the lowest tax bracket from 15% to 16%. The Liberals just recently cut that from 16% to 15%. In addition, they plan to lower the basic exemption by $400, which the Liberals just raised by $500. These are moves that directly affect the lowest income earners, increasing the tax burden on the poor to subsidize their GST cut, which let's remember, you won't notice unless you're someone who buys luxury cars and computers regularly.

You can't get much more "rob the poor to feed the rich" than this. Quite frankly, it's sickening. One of the reasons I was a Progressive Conservative, and still describe myself as a blue Liberal, is because I believe in tax cuts, especially tax cuts for lower income earners, and I am bitterly opposed to raising taxes. For the part of me that still harbours conservative sympathies, this is a huge betrayal. I left the Conservative Party because they no longer shared my views on social issues - now it appears they are aligned against me on economic issues as well.

Whatever happened to Stephen "I think all taxes are bad" Harper? I can't even call him a socialist, because socialists call for tax increases for the rich, not for the poor. No, this is plain, old fashioned, 18-19th century conservatism, and everything wretched that it embodies, including an emphasis on "moral order" (no fags), cracking down hard on crime instead of trying to eliminate its causes (cutting youth programs, and then wondering why youth violence goes up, apparently necessitating putting 14 year olds in prison for ten years for having guns), and increasing the burden on the poor so that the rich can live in more luxury than ever before.

For all the clamouring for tax cuts from right-wingers, this is what I've been able to discern from this policy proposal: Tory tax cuts are good, but Liberal tax cuts are bad. Conversely, Tory tax increases are good, but Liberal taxes increases are... well, non-existant, but hypothetically bad. Say it with me now: p-a-r-t-i-s-a-n-s-h-i-p.

5 Comments:

At 1/07/2006 12:30 p.m., Blogger Blogger said...

I have been running a daily seat forecaster on my blog and so I have been analyzing the polls daily. I can tell you that this could not have come at a worst time for the Conservatives. Voters have been moving to them but paused recently, almost like a second thought. This is not the second thought they wanted them to think about.

 
At 1/07/2006 1:16 p.m., Blogger mAc Chaos said...

You extrapolated all of that from a 1% tax increase?

 
At 1/07/2006 3:09 p.m., Blogger Platty said...

I was not aware that you were privy to the Conservatives entire tax package announcement. Or did you simply take this from the only news source that ran it, the CBC? Of course their information was from a single phone call, and not corroborated on camera by anyone in the Conservative party, but hey, that's responsible. Say it with me....n-o-n p-a-r-t-i-s-a-n reporting!!!

 
At 1/07/2006 5:50 p.m., Blogger lecentre said...

This is really interesting information. I'd like to learn more about it myself, because I agree that raising taxes on the poor is dumb. That said, do you have a link to where this policy statement can be found? Conservative.ca is pretty vague, it seems.
On the other hand, the Conservatives have a much better foreign policy than the Liberals, where the Mid-East is concerned. The would not join the mob in Israel-bashing at the UN for example, and might even call for Palestinians to take responsibility for attacking Israeli civilians, rather than blaming it on Israel.

 
At 1/07/2006 8:49 p.m., Blogger Hy Coup said...

So what you're saying is that up until January 1st (6 days ago), the Liberals have been screwing the poor? And the poor, who have been being screwed by the Liberals for the past 12 years should vote for you why?

Either 16% is a fair tax rate or it's not. You can't have it both ways. Oh, wait. You're Liberal! Of course you can.

 

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