Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Continued deficits to leave Tory election promises unkept

OTTAWA — With the federal government no longer expecting to balance its budget before the next election, four key Conservative election goodies are on hold.

The Tories had linked limited income splitting for families, doubling of the child fitness tax credit, a new adult fitness tax credit, and doubling the annual contribution limits to tax-free savings accounts to deficit elimination.

Minister of State for Finance Ted Menzies says tax cuts and credits won't come until the books are balanced.

"We maintain that those are the right policy decisions but we've said all along that when we get back to balance, those decisions will be taken," Menzies said Wednesday.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty admits the federal budget won't be balanced until 2016-17 — after the next election — because global economic jitters have hurt tax revenue.

So, couples with young or teenage kids hoping to save hundreds of dollars by splitting their incomes and paying lower tax rates won't get to do that in the next few years.

Carleton University economist Ian Lee says that's tough, but he's glad the Tories linked pricey promises to deficit elimination.

"At the time I thought it was very prudent to announce that they would not take effect until the budget was balanced," said Lee.

He says it wouldn't make sense to borrow money in order to push forward with income splitting and other measures because taxpayers would still be on the hook for the accumulated debt.

"I wished that the economy was growing more quickly," said Lee. "I wish that the U.S. economy was growing more quickly because if the economies were growing more quickly they would be throwing off more cash, more tax revenues, and that would allow the deficit to be retired more quickly, but we live in an imperfect world."

Original Article
Source: toronto sun
Author: Daniel Proussalidis

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