i0uG CoLLins

e get this straight ¢

_ There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so
important, as fiving within your means. — Calvin Coolidge.

IT WOULD be pleasant to describe the federal election as a
tale told by idiots, signifying nothing, especially as there is
no lack of idiots. But the trouble is that the tale is not being

told.

I refer to those sleep-walkers of
all parties who march past our na-
tional debt as if it didn’t exist,
promising more by the minute.
Never mind that it’s a ball and
chain of a debt, a mountain of a
debt, a universe of a debt. As far
as Brian Baloney, John Turnpot
and Ed Broadbabble are concern-
ed, it is just as unmentionable as
immigration.

39.6 per cent. Last year it was
reportedly 51.8 per cent. God
knows what it will be ir five years,
or where we will be.

Chuck Cook has had nothing to
say on this matter because when he
is in Ottawa he is the Quiet Cana-
dian. But some MPs’ statements
on our national spending orgy in-
spire awe, and in that respect Mary
Collins is a champ.

oey:

if n 1973 the debt was 19.9 per cent of the gross domestic
product. In 1984, when the Tories came to power, if was 39.6
per cent. Last year it was reportedly 51.8 per cent.””

Pity there aren’t still such things

as debtors’ prisons. All three
would then find themselves in jail.
The whole of Ottawa would be in
jail.

One of the troubles with this
subject is that the figures are in-
comprehensible. Who can com-
prehend $300 billion, which is
where the debt stands now, with
more to come?

The interest charges alone
amount to about $600 million a
week, or $32 billion a year. Twen-
ty-seven cents out of every tax
dollar goes to pay that interest,
and the debt represents almost
$22,000 for every working person
in the country.

Something else to put you off
your boiled egg: in 1973 the debt
was 19.9 per cent of the gross
domestic product. In 1984, when
the Tories came to power, it was

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On Feb. 24 of this year she was
burbling and bubbling over what
she described, according to Han-
sard, as ‘ta wonderful budget.’’ ‘‘I
see the budget in terms of ‘steady
as she goes,’’’stated this brifliant

em.

She was full of praise for Fi-
nance Minister Michael Wilson, as
befits a backbeacher who is dying
for a nice job. She said he should
get an Olympic Gold Medal for his
great achievements. Well, all I can
say to that is that we want a dope
test.

It is true that the Tories have
held the debt down this last couple
of years. Fractionally. But since
Wilson became finance minister it
has increased by $100 billion,
which ain’t hay. And how has the
line been held? Well, in the first 18
months of Tory rule, personal in-
come tax went up by 44 per cent.

Today, two-thirds of the increases
in tax revenue come from higher
persona! income taxes. In other
words, they have not spent less.
They have simply taken more.

There are some fine in-
congruities in all this.

We were told recently that the
country could not afford full
door-to-door mail service on ac-
count of how it would cost $38
million. Yet this year’s increase in
foreign aid (help for Comrade
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and
other layabouts) has been nearly
$100 million. Foreign aid expen-
ditures now stand at $2.2 billion,
and Joe Clark wants them hiked
still further. That way, he'll get
more pats on the head at the Unit-
ed Nations.

If you like bad jokes, one of the
best is Wilson’s claim that his pro-
posed sales tax will not mean a
bigger tax bill. He reckons it will
be “‘revenue neutral,’’ meaning
that what is takea away on the one
i:und will be given back on the
other.

Has there ever been a ‘‘revenue
neutral’’ tax? Don’t be silly. Talk
like that reminds me of how the
income tax was supposed to be
“temporary”’ when it was in-
troduced in 1917. And we all know
that, in sum, taxes never go down.
They float up like soap bubbles.

The charade goes on. ‘‘NDP
promises more affordable homes’’;
‘“*NDP promises to hike pensions’’;
‘“*Turner doubles Tory child care
plan’’; ‘‘Turner vows more help
for seniors’’; ‘Tories target $50
million to fight iliteracy’’; ‘‘Tories
promise $60 million for
multiculturalism.’’ And so on,
multiplied a millionfold.

No wonder the mentally
disturbed are being given the vote.
They are running the country@®

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