Trudeau Liberals Bribe Voters with Taxpayer Dollars

[Zeitgeist]

Yet again we hear funding announcements from a government that is driving up debt at record levels.  It’s so irresponsible and amounts to nothing more than bribing voters with taxpayer money.  $6 billion for housing, $1 billion for school breakfasts, countless billions for childcare and pharmaceuticals, including free birth control in a country with a collapsing birth rate.  How can anyone support this?

According to its latest fiscal projections, the federal government will spend $449.8 billion on programs and services in 2023/24—up 75.5 per cent (nominally) from 2014/15 when program spending was $256.2 billion. Adjusting for population growth and inflation, the Trudeau government has recorded the five-highest years (2018-2022) of per-person spending in Canadian history, and is on track to record a sixth. But have we seen a corresponding increase in economic growth?

“Canada has experienced an economic growth crisis for the last decade. One of the best ways to measure economic growth is to use inflation-adjusted per-person gross domestic product (GDP), which provides the broadest measure of living standards for Canadians. According to a recent study by Philip Cross, former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada, between 2013 and 2022 Canada’s per-person GDP (inflation-adjusted) grew at its slowest pace since the 1930s. Moreover, economic growth in Canada has fallen well behind growth in the United States, showing that Canada’s stagnation was not inevitable.”

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/prime-minister-rejects-austerity-despite-massive-debt-and-dismal-economic-growth

[Legato]

The Trudeau government ineptitude shows no bounds.

[CitzenConcerned]

I disagree with the framing from the Fraser Institute.

What exactly is accomplished by increasing GDP and endless economic growth?

[WestCanMan]

The BC Gov't is doing it too right now.

I got an email today:

• On February 22, the Government of B.C. announced [PDF] a new B.C. Electricity Affordability Credit that will provide the average BC Hydro residential customer with an annual savings of around $100.
• To be eligible for this credit, you must have an active account as of March 31, 2024. The credit will be automatically calculated and divided over your BC Hydro bills over the next 12 months.
• The exact credit amount you’ll receive will be based on your home's electricity consumption between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024. For the average household, this will provide savings of around $100. Customers with the lowest consumption last year will receive no less than $24.

$100 a year. $8.50/mo. (on avg) 

🥳

[herbie]

OMG so awful a govt delivering cash and services back to taxpayers instead of useful things like more laws, cops, jails, tanks and submarines.

[Perspektiv]

37 minutes ago, herbie said:

OMG so awful a govt delivering cash and services back to taxpayers instead of useful things like more laws, cops, jails, tanks and submarines.

That cash and those services were paid for by Canadians.

Meaning, some are getting bent over, while others are getting.

You're making it sound like it was a gift.

I work my a** off, and get peanuts from the tax rebates, but it costs me heavily personally as well as to do business.

I am essentially paying into making life more comfortable for the average Canadian family.

All while being bent over.

Canadians who like hand outs, love Trudeau. Those who work hard for a living and are being bent over, are sick of it.

I work to put food on my table. Not only is it a cost that has dramatically increased, but there are now Canadians who feel entitled for a bigger cut of what I have to offer as a middle class Canadian.

More laws, would actually mean less theft, and those less increases in costs to make up for loss being passed onto Canadians.

More cops would enforce this.

Hand outs don't work, because that money must come from someone's bent over back pockets, who likely work far harder for it than those for whom it is going into in highest amounts.

[CdnFox]

2 hours ago, herbie said:

OMG so awful a govt delivering cash and services back to taxpayers instead of useful things like more laws, cops, jails, tanks and submarines.

It costs about 20 percent of the amount collected to collect and then rebate money.

So... to really hammer home how dumb your comment was, you're happy to see them collect a couple billion dollars - spend 200 million that could have been used by families to pay their bills so that familes can have 800 million to pay their bills. Instead of just leaving them will the billions.

What kind of glue did your mommy huff while pregnant so that you'd be so brain damaged you'd think that was a good idea.

If we need cops and subs and whatever (oddly specific) then fine - we collect the money we need to and pay it. If we DON"T need that crap then DON"T COLLECT THE MONEY.

 

But collecting it - burning 20 percent of it, and then giving the REMAINDER back is dumb!

 

6 hours ago, WestCanMan said:

The BC Gov't is doing it too right now.

I got an email today:

• On February 22, the Government of B.C. announced [PDF] a new B.C. Electricity Affordability Credit that will provide the average BC Hydro residential customer with an annual savings of around $100.
• To be eligible for this credit, you must have an active account as of March 31, 2024. The credit will be automatically calculated and divided over your BC Hydro bills over the next 12 months.
• The exact credit amount you’ll receive will be based on your home's electricity consumption between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024. For the average household, this will provide savings of around $100. Customers with the lowest consumption last year will receive no less than $24.

$100 a year. $8.50/mo. (on avg) 

🥳

I note the conservatives are going up in the polls right now.

Edited April 3 by CdnFox

[Perspektiv]

1 hour ago, CdnFox said:

If we need cops and subs and whatever (oddly specific) then fine - we collect the money we need to and pay it. If we DON"T need that crap then DON"T COLLECT THE MONEY.

 

But collecting it - burning 20 percent of it, and then giving the REMAINDER back is dumb!

Feeding an emotional thinker pragmatic logic, is like putting regular fuel in your diesel truck because its cheaper.

It seems like a fantastic idea, until you drive off.

[BeaverFever]

Providing the public with services they value and demand but can’t individually afford isn’t “bribing people with their own money” any more than providing them with water and sewer and police and public sanitation. 

[CdnFox]

41 minutes ago, Perspektiv said:

Feeding an emotional thinker pragmatic logic, is like putting regular fuel in your diesel truck because its cheaper.

It seems like a fantastic idea, until you drive off.

Snicker - that's perfect

The thing about the carbon tax federally is that it's a bit of a pyramid scheme. They way they've got it set up, as long as there's a bit of inflation and as long as energy costs are rising and population is growing the amount they give back this year will always be lower than what they bring in. Until the situation changes it gives them both extra tax money as well as a way to hook people by convincing them that they'd starve without the liberal's handouts.

Clever trick, if you're a snake oil kind of politician.

[Zeitgeist]

17 minutes ago, BeaverFever said:

Providing the public with services they value and demand but can’t individually afford isn’t “bribing people with their own money” any more than providing them with water and sewer and police and public sanitation. 

Since when should government provide all of the services that individuals used to choose to pay for themselves?  When did Canada become Cuba?  2015?

You do realize that all of this is being paid for by debt at this point, hurting future generations?  If we can’t even get government healthcare right, should we really be overspending on more lousy government services?

Trudeau has tripled government spending.

Edited April 3 by Zeitgeist

[Zeitgeist]

2 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

Snicker - that's perfect

The thing about the carbon tax federally is that it's a bit of a pyramid scheme. They way they've got it set up, as long as there's a bit of inflation and as long as energy costs are rising and population is growing the amount they give back this year will always be lower than what they bring in. Until the situation changes it gives them both extra tax money as well as a way to hook people by convincing them that they'd starve without the liberal's handouts.

Clever trick, if you're a snake oil kind of politician.

It’s simply a tax on existence, because we need the products and services that have carbon taxes, such as heating, transportation, and the products impacted by the multiplier effects of these taxes through the supply chain.

The carbon tax is about making life more expensive so that we live less: go fewer places, buy less, eat less, stay warm less, have less, and die more.

Carbon taxes hurt people because the war on carbon footprints is a war on humanity.

[BeaverFever]

23 minutes ago, Zeitgeist said:

Since when should government provide all of the services that individuals used to choose to pay for themselves?  When did Canada become Cuba?  2015?

Since the public decided it’s in their best interest for the government to do so, e.g. when those services are no longer affordable or accessible in the private market. That doesn’t make Canada Cuba, all governments even right wing ones provide services to their citizens, it’s why they exist. 
 

23 minutes ago, Zeitgeist said:

You do realize that all of this is being paid for by debt at this point, hurting future generations?  If we can’t even get government healthcare right, should we really be overspending on more lousy government services?

Lack of essential services like housing and childcare hurts future generations more. 

Nobody believes we shouldn’t have public healthcare, and it’s shortcomings are often tied to a lack of funding.

Edited April 3 by BeaverFever

[CdnFox]

27 minutes ago, BeaverFever said:

Since the public decided it’s in their best interest for the government to do so,

The public never decided that. And the only reason they're not affordable is gov't interference in the first place.

ANd that's not the first time we've seen that in Canada - the libs wiped out the fisheries in atlantic canada with bad policy and then gave them hand outs and basically said "if you don't vote for us and our handouts how will you survive"?

Wise people know this is true:  The most effective way to enslave a man is to provide for his every need.

[Perspektiv]

2 hours ago, BeaverFever said:

Providing the public with services they value and demand but can’t individually afford isn’t “bribing people with their own money” any more than providing them with water and sewer and police and public sanitation. 

These are rights, for your latter examples.

Clean potable water. In a cold country where you have rights, heated (as long as the heat bill is paid) and properly insulated home.

Police to enforce some of these rights, or rather uphold them.

Sewage not being everywhere on the streets, spreading disease.

These are all rights.

You don't have a right to a government hand out of cash. This isn't an entitlement, either.

Money if you work, is put aside out of your pay for EI. This, is a right. You have worked for it. Accumulated it. God forbid you get hurt or sick, you best believe you are entitled to it if you need to take time off due to it.

Being taxed more heavily because I earn more money, to pay the maximum hand out for a family of 7, which are on welfare isn't a right. Its a bribe. 

Bringing in refugees in high amounts who likely would all qualify for those maximum amounts, is essentially buying their votes.

There literally is no purpose to the carbon tax, as none of its goals ha e been achieved. In fact, emissions are up. Not down.

This is nothing but a bribe. Wealth redistribution.

Neither of which any Canadian is entitled to.

Anyone demanding this type of money, likely are lazy and entitled. Canadians who actually work for a living, will be fed up with it.

[Michael Hardner]

3 hours ago, Perspektiv said:

These are rights, for your latter examples.

Clean potable water. In a cold country where you have rights, heated (as long as the heat bill is paid) and properly insulated home.

Police to enforce some of these rights, or rather uphold them.

Sewage not being everywhere on the streets, spreading disease.

These are all rights.

You don't have a right to a government hand out of cash. This isn't an entitlement, either.

Money if you work, is put aside out of your pay for EI. This, is a right. You have worked for it. Accumulated it. God forbid you get hurt or sick, you best believe you are entitled to it if you need to take time off due to it.

Being taxed more heavily because I earn more money, to pay the maximum hand out for a family of 7, which are on welfare isn't a right. Its a bribe. 

Bringing in refugees in high amounts who likely would all qualify for those maximum amounts, is essentially buying their votes.

There literally is no purpose to the carbon tax, as none of its goals ha e been achieved. In fact, emissions are up. Not down.

This is nothing but a bribe. Wealth redistribution.

Neither of which any Canadian is entitled to.

Anyone demanding this type of money, likely are lazy and entitled. Canadians who actually work for a living, will be fed up with it.

We can't complain that things are terrible for working people, and also complain about things being done to help their basic needs such as pharma or dental care.

The government is charged with helping the overall welfare of its citizens.  Despite all of the claims that we are going to the "left", the wealthy have benefited from neoliberalism and working people haven't seen real gains.

If you don't want them to vote in socialists, you had better throw them a bone or two.

[Zeitgeist]

6 hours ago, BeaverFever said:

Since the public decided it’s in their best interest for the government to do so, e.g. when those services are no longer affordable or accessible in the private market. That doesn’t make Canada Cuba, all governments even right wing ones provide services to their citizens, it’s why they exist. 
 

Lack of essential services like housing and childcare hurts future generations more. 

Nobody believes we shouldn’t have public healthcare, and its shortcomings are often tied to a lack of funding.

You don’t seem to see the inflationary impact on housing and how services are stretched due to policies that have essentially ignored the cost of living challenges to people of higher taxation, regulation, and unprecedented mass immigration.  Life has become much more expensive, and trying to spend money we don’t have to fix it has accelerated the crisis.  Look at wage growth and the amount of people’s salaries in Canada dedicated to housing, transportation, and heating alone.  Much of this crisis relates to policy choices over time.  It has gotten much harder for people in the last several years, and only so much can be blamed on the pandemic, which also could’ve been handled differently.

Edited April 3 by Zeitgeist

[Zeitgeist]

1 hour ago, Michael Hardner said:

We can't complain that things are terrible for working people, and also complain about things being done to help their basic needs such as pharma or dental care.

The government is charged with helping the overall welfare of its citizens.  Despite all of the claims that we are going to the "left", the wealthy have benefited from neoliberalism and working people haven't seen real gains.

If you don't want them to vote in socialists, you had better throw them a bone or two.

It’s been a thousand bones.  

[Michael Hardner]

4 minutes ago, Zeitgeist said:

It’s been a thousand bones.  

Working people are in bad shape right now.  That's the crux of the criticism we hear against Trudeau on here.  Try to square the circle between things are awful and things are great for the 1000 bones people.  You can't.

[Zeitgeist]

1 hour ago, Michael Hardner said:

Working people are in bad shape right now.  That's the crux of the criticism we hear against Trudeau on here.  Try to square the circle between things are awful and things are great for the 1000 bones people.  You can't.

The issue is that you can’t have a heavily socialized economy and a low-cost, entrepreneurial, open economy at the same time.  Canada is at the extreme end of socialism and creeping towards communism.  Too many expensive and ineffectual government programs and policies.

When mainstream media have become cheerleaders of government and free speech is being cut back, you can see the results: big, overbearing bureaucracy, less business opportunity, lower incomes that are more heavily taxed, more treatment of ideology as fact, and so on.  It’s the slow moving, ham-fisted yet very intrusive and overbearing government problem we see in the most left-leaning European countries.  It’s the central planning cookie cutter Soviet system in waiting.  Self-determination and wealth are frowned upon and the successful are mocked and shaken down for taxes to maintain the bloated nanny state.  Free speech is for “alt right” capitalists, colonialists, and imperialists.  The rhetoric is very Marxist.

Do you honestly think that such a system is better for working people?   It’s not, certainly not in the long run. Money and talent will flee the country and people will get poorer.  Our incomes have declined relative to the US over the past decade.

Edited April 3 by Zeitgeist

[Aristides]

9 hours ago, BeaverFever said:

Providing the public with services they value and demand but can’t individually afford isn’t “bribing people with their own money” any more than providing them with water and sewer and police and public sanitation. 

Unfortunately it is borrowed money that will never be paid back. Our descendants will still be paying for services we used long after we are dead.

[ExFlyer]

Something to ponder and remember about all governments, not just liberal but conservative and especially NDP

“The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.”

— Adrian Rogers"

 

And:

 

"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

― Adrian Rogers"

 

[BeaverFever]

3 hours ago, Zeitgeist said:

You don’t seem to see the inflationary impact on housing and how services are stretched due to policies that have essentially ignored the cost of living challenges to people of higher taxation, regulation, and unprecedented mass immigration.  Life has become much more expensive, and trying to spend money we don’t have to fix it has accelerated the crisis.  Look at wage growth and the amount of people’s salaries in Canada dedicated to housing, transportation, and heating alone.  Much of this crisis relates to policy choices over time.  It has gotten much harder for people in the last several years, and only so much can be blamed on the pandemic, which also could’ve been handled differently.

Sure, Ive certainly heard the arguments and the counter-arguments amd the theories about government spending and it’s impact on inflation. I don’t dismiss them entirely but I take them with a grain of salt. It’s not that these theories are untrue so much as they’re a bit like predicting the weather except even less accurate. They’re more effective at explaining the past than predicting the future due to all the minute and/or unforeseen factors that come into play. Inflation has already been reducing for some time. 
 

But anyways my point was more to challenge the assertion that public services are an evil plot to “bribe citizens with their own money” 

Edited April 3 by BeaverFever

[Zeitgeist]

8 minutes ago, BeaverFever said:

Sure, Ive certainly heard the arguments and the counter-arguments amd the theories about government spending and it’s impact on inflation. I don’t dismiss them entirely but I take them with a grain of salt. It’s not that these theories are untrue so much as they’re a bit like predicting the weather except even less accurate. They’re more effective at explaining the past than predicting the future due to all the minute and/or unforeseen factors that come into play. Inflation has already been reducing for some time. 
 

But anyways my point was more to challenge the assertion that public services are an evil plot to “bribe citizens with their own money” 

Any fool can borrow money to overspend.  There’s also a fundamental problem with the idea that government should take care of so many aspects of your life, at your expense of course.  It’s weak and counter to the idea that you can use your talents to build what you value and what you think others will value.  It’s the state as parent.  Nanny state.

[Michael Hardner]

2 hours ago, Zeitgeist said:

 Canada is at the extreme end of socialism and creeping towards communism.   

That's where I stopped reading.