When the government spends, you pay
By Lethbridge Herald on December 3, 2021.
Rachael Thomas
Member of Parliament for Lethbridge
Breakfast is by far my favourite meal of the day. My go-to menu item is eggs and bacon, or an omelette with a side salad. I love a classic breakfast! I used to be able to eat at a local pub or breakfast spot for as little as $6.00.
That’s not true anymore — and for good reason. The cost of groceries has skyrocketed!
The price of bacon has increased by 20 per cent; the price of eggs by 7.4 per cent; and the price of butter by 5.5 per cent.
This isn’t just bad news for me. It’s bad news for everyone.
But you didn’t need me to tell you that. If you’ve shopped at a local grocery store, eaten at a restaurant, paid a home heating bill, or filled your tank with gas, you already know that life is getting more and more expensive.
So, why is that?
The name of the bad news is inflation and it’s driven by awful government policy.
Due to inflation, the cost of living is rising and it’s causing the chasm between the rich and the poor to widen. Prime Minister Trudeau promised to grow “the middle class,” but in reality, his policies are making it more and more difficult for Canadians to make ends meet, let alone make financial gains.
A recent poll found the number one concern for 78 per cent of Canadians is the rising cost of living.
Those who are hurt the most by the government’s decision to spend money it doesn’t have, are Canadians who live paycheque to paycheque.
Food banks are finding it difficult to keep up with the level of need they’re seeing. One of the biggest changes over the last year has been the rise in use by those who are employed and normally able to get by.
The prime minister says he doesn’t think much about monetary policy. It shows.
He handed himself a blank check in spring 2020 and has been printing and spending money ever since.
The level of debt amassed by Mr. Trudeau not only surpasses that of any one prime minister in our nation’s history, but actually exceeds all previous prime ministers combined!
Instead of reining in spending and living within their means, the Liberals have been printing money non-stop to pay their bills.
Mr. Trudeau has handed out exorbitant amounts of money in the name of “emergency income,” but the books show the personal disposable income of Canadians has actually increased during the pandemic. Earned income has dropped significantly, but enormous government handouts have more than covered the loss.
As a result, there is tons of extra money flooding the economy, but the same or fewer number of goods.
The outcome is higher prices because an endless supply of printed money combined with limited goods drives up their price tag. The sad thing is, it’s the wealthy that benefit when prices increase, because it adds to their profit line.
Meanwhile, low-income wage earners must make their dollars stretch further to pay for the increased cost of groceries, clothes, and gas.
All the while the government is bloating in size not only by spending all this extra money, but by raking it back through taxes.
Once government supports are factored in, Canadians are bringing home more money than before the pandemic.
However, because the cost of living is growing astronomically, your money doesn’t stretch as far as your smaller paycheque once did.
One dollar used to be worth one dollar. Now, due to Mr. Trudeau’s decision to print money, your dollar is only worth 95 cents.
If the government were to increase taxes by five percent, there would be massive outrage.
But the government isn’t imposing a five per cent tax. It simply comes with a new name: inflation. Hence, the term “inflation tax” is often used to describe what’s happening.
A single mom on a $45,000 salary is finding it more difficult to fill up her pantry and buy clothes for her kids.
Seniors on a fixed income have the burden of making their dollars cover the increasing cost of necessities. Those who live with a disability are having to spend more of their small stipend on groceries and shelter.
It didn’t have to be this way.
As Conservative Finance Critic, Pierre Poilievre, has pointed out, “countries that are not printing money to pay their bills have maintained a low cost of living and an affordable life for their citizens, and those countries that are flooding their economies with cheap cash are driving up the cost of living for their people.”
Reining in fiscal spending would necessitate limited government. This, of course, is a horrible restraint for any political party that only attains or maintains power when people are reliant on government programs and handouts.
The government is choosing to be fiscally irresponsible for the sake of political advantage and it’s putting our economic future in jeopardy.
In this cunning sleight of hand, Mr. Trudeau presents himself as Canadians’ caretaker.
In doing so, he is stealing money from the next generation to stuff the pockets of Canadians today. Meanwhile, our savings are depreciating in value.
So, what’s the solution?
To start, the government needs to stop printing money — now!
37-36
Incoherent.
One might ask who is buying this debt? Why is giving the needy money inflationary, while giving corporate shareholders incentives and tax cuts not? Why did she not mention our UCP government doing the same thing, pushing our debt to $125 billion? How can she bemoan debt (issued to survive the pandemic) while also shedding crocodile tears for those same people barely getting by?
excellent!
You deflect from the Trudeau cartel to the Kenney UCP while ignoring the debt which is constantly ever spiraling out of control and the constant printing of currency which is greatly fueling our out of control inflation. You should be charging Jason Kenney rent as he seems to be constantly occupying and living in your mind.
You seem to selectively ignore or are plain ignorant of Dow Chemical tripling their investment in Fort Sk, or the largest ever Amazon web services investment in Calgary. How about the 9,000 new jobs created and $1 billion investment in the growing Alberta film industry sector? How about the Air Products multi-billion dollar net-zero complex in Edmonton, or the $2.5 billion and 4,000 new jobs from Northern Petrochemical outside of Grande Prairie? How about the completed Line 3 pipeline? Alberta is shipping more oil now than ever. Imperial Oil is also building a renewable diesel complex in Strathcona refinery which will create more well paying jobs. The UCP have grown the economy and jobs mountains more than the destructive, inept NDP did when they were in power. When the NDP were accidentally elected we saw huge numbers of job losses and massive investment fleeing Alberta. The only thing the NDP did was damage our oil industry and chase away investment.
“Stimulus not the cause of Canada’s inflation problem, says former Bank of Canada governor”
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/stimulus-not-the-cause-of-canada-s-inflation-problem-says-former-bank-of-canada-governor-1.5683699
I most certainly understand Rachael why you write this dribble. You are trying to convince the uneducated (political wise) that some other party would wave a magic wand and we would all prance around the fireplace singing our praises of the PC’s while everyone enjoyed a life filled with riches.. The inflation we are seeing now has little or nothing to do with whomever is in power in Ottawa. This is a global problem brought on by outside forces such as the COVID-19 pandemic which in turn spun into supply chain issues. The climate changes we have been seeing haven’t helped as well. It is quite easy to brainwash a certain segment of the population as we have observed by the anti-vaxxers, the anti-maskers, the “my rights and freedoms folks” while ignoring everyone else’s rights and freedoms. Each time you write an article, I actually can’t read the whole thing as it is just so filled with hate for anyone not a unwavering follower of the federal PC party. I am not a Liberal or an NDP’er. I have voted for all the 3 main parties in the past. I vote for leaders that I feel I can trust, not parties. Anyhoo, enjoy your bacon and eggs!
Well stated, Mr. Cameron! One thing, though. The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada died in 2003.
i agree with your entry, except, of course, that you see those not choosing covid vaxes as both anti-vax and brainwashed. you choose to overlook several good reasons why people choose to not covid vax. you choose to overlook the fact that somehow, the vax only works in tandem with others being vaxed, rather than it either works to protect the vaxed, or, it does not. you choose to overlook that people have a right to determine what goes into their body. you choose to overlook that people have a right to not trust pharm as much you do. you choose to overlook that people have a right of conscience to not vax due to the ongoing, never ceasing torture of sentient creatures by pharma in order to come up with their products. you choose to overlook that you choose to take and do what you feel serves you, but, you choose to overlook that others have that right, too.
biff: Perhaps I wasn’t clear in my statement about anti-vaxxers et. so I’ll make it a bit more clear. If someone decides to not get vaccinated for Covid-19, I don’t really care. Here is where it all goes wrong. If you refuse to get vaccinated and then try to force yourself into a place of business because of your “rights” while at the same time breaking AHS rules, you are a problem because you don’t respect any laws except your own. When you protest and harass Health Care Workers for doing their job or throwing bricks at an ambulance, you are a criminal. If you choose not to get vaccinated because of your misguided (in my opinion) beliefs, fine. Just don’t try to impose your views on to others by force and breaking laws. Although to some of these people they are exercising their rights and freedoms, they are actually (in my opinion) acting like some of the dictators of the world trying to impose their “law” upon the people that just want to enjoy their lives in peace.
doug, fair enough; i appreciate your clarification. i agree that how some people – fortunately, a relative few – have chosen to exercise their protestations, at the likes of businesses, schools, health care facilities, are not appropriate focal points, just as it is never acceptable to vandalise, burn and loot the property of others.
what remains, though, is the issue of where choice oversteps the likes of freedom, liberty, and rights. it is nice that one’s choice to covid vax does not infringe on one’s rights, liberty, or freedom. what is not nice is that one’s “choice” to not covid vax results in sundry infringements on one’s rights, freedom, and liberty.
surely, one can understand that the coercive measures placed upon the non-covid vaxed renders the idea of “choice” in this matter an utter bs? it is, indeed, now a “choice” in an orwellian sense only.
consequently, the right to of sole ownership over one’s body – such that we each are free of state/third party control – is not being respected as such. where do you, and others, stand on this right? do you see it as not at all a right? or, is it a right only until govt/third party determines when it is and is not a right? if the latter is one’s belief, then one is actually supporting the idea that govt/third party has ultimate control over one’s body, but we get to have that control wherever govt/third party has yet to tread. and that is a rather scary belief (in my opinion).
that is not to say we each should not have as much info toward making our best personal choices. that is not to say we should not consult with the most learned. but, it is to say that, all said, we each make our “best” choice, without coercion, mandates, and laws. govt/third party has right to protect us only where there are those infringing upon one’s rights, freedom, liberty; moreover, govt/third party does not get to infringe on one’s rights freedom, liberty, be it through laws, or more covert avenues such as via mandates and restrictions whereby certain ones are exempted and others not. if we want and believe in freedom, rights, and liberty, no govt/third party has any right at all to protect each from oneself; it has only the right to protect the rights, freedom, and liberty each from infringement by another.
the question remains: what are people to do, all those who have been forced to either vax or not be able to enjoy their right to socialise and work? how are they to respond in the face of govt overreach? moreover, how do we, all of us, accept govt actions that step into the realm of one’s body? bad enough to no longer be able to have social outlets, but when one is confronted with the dire reality of covid vaxing or losing one’s job/career: what is an acceptable peaceable response to what amounts to a dictatorial approach?
You completely ignore the reality that “one’s body” works, socializes, shops, recreates, and moves AMONG OTHER BODIES, as in, we are all PART of that same herd of human bodies trying to survive A FRIGGING PANDEMIC that has been created by an ever more transmissible VIRUS. You’ve been infected and made reasonably ill in the past as a result of contracting a virus right? THAT’S WHAT THIS IS.
Again, methinks thou doth protest too much.
Your arguments AGAINST obtaining the most effective protection available from a new, dangerous virus grow ever more abstruse because, quite simply, you have no leg to stand on at this point. None whatsoever, except some wild-eyed, libertarian crap about FREEDUMB. Sorry, but that is what most people rightly think, that it’s dumb, the kind of dumb that doesn’t even know when to come in out of the rain.
just a curiosity. we watched as govt took actions that resulted in many people losing their businesses – their livelihoods – under forced shutdowns of some businesses; and yet, many other business owners were permitted to keep their doors open…especially the very largest corporate entities. we watched as govt forced covid vaxes on its employees, and stood by as govt mandated/forced/coerced and allowed many other employers to force-choice covid vaxes on workers, such that workers choosing to exercise their supposed right to their body and conscience (please note, these vaxes are derived, as are most/all pharma products, from extensive and massive animal torture) will either vax or lose their livelihood. we stand by and watch as govt determines there are now two classes of people: the vaxed – all with equal rights to work and socialise; and, the un-covid vaxed, all with equal rights to not keep their jobs and to not be able to socialise. is that the freedom, rights, and liberty for which we all stand? does this fit the definition of the freedom, rights, and liberty for which we honour those that have sacrificed for freedom, rights, and liberty?
here is a curiosity: govt tells us they have no right to limit int’l travel, but they can shut down domestic travel, and whichever businesses of their choosing. to the quick, govt gets direct flights from delta-ravaged india a-happening again, and govt ensured throughout what has been termed a pandemic that privileged people wishing to travel the globe get to do so.
well, where did covid come from? it did not originate here in canada. where have the mutants come from? they did not originate in canada. and, yet, there has been so much innuendo, if not outright accusation, that it is the un-covid vaxed that have caused the mutations. curious. if it is the un-covid vaxed causing mutations, would there not be several mutations forthcoming from canada and the usa, for example, where there are still a fair number not vaxed? on the topic of mutations, i read numerous articles and discovered that variants actually can originate in response to vaccines, as well as mutate through the process of infecting hosts. i posted links to some of those readings in other threads.
the reality, thus far, is that the mutants have come from other continents. each of those, like covid original, have been imported. how? by international joyriders. how very, very many have expressed as a primary reason they vaxed was so they can travel; some even saying that travel is “therapeutic.” i suppose we can say as much about the stampede, and about packing professional sports venues – even as the “scarier, more serious delta variant spread, and even with, perhaps, the even more scary and serious again omicron now emerging. and, oh, oh, oh (merry christmas!), now, we can relax into the winter olympics soon enough. amazing that many people will convene back where all of this covid began, in china, that vast land a land of a billion plus that respects the human rights, freedom, and liberty of no one. a land upon which much of the world, “free” and otherwise, has positioned itself into a dependence. curious.
the unvaxed pose no threat to the vaxed. and, the extent to which they pose a threat to each other is by choice. as for the propaganda that the un-covid vaxed threaten health care, and that they are a threat to those that have too long been waiting for their care, let us consider this: 1) health care has been mismanaged and dismantled for decades already; 2) do not prioritise un-covid vaxed over those already waiting; 3) given that the numbers of those requiring long term emergency care in canada for their covid issues is typically less than 500 or so – out of a pop of 35 million?!, we had best start having some serious discussion about, and fixes for, our health services.
meantime, the biggest threats, by far, to all canadians in the covid era are int’l joyriders and our govts, the latter which appears to be more and more taking its cues from china.
We could go around and around in circles biff but we will not solve a single thing, as the fish we are trying to fry, are far to large and beyond the single or multiple rantings of either you or I. I just wish for peace and understanding in this world but alas, it is a losing battle and I shall exit this world with the same kind of issues in place that have plagued humans for far too long and it appears will continue for the foreseeable future. Although I have stated in the past that I was an agnostic, in recent times, I have become a confirmed atheist. I do believe in the many of the teachings of the New Testament. The most notable absolute truth that I believe in is; “The love of money is the root of all evil.” With all the evil things on this earth, I keep finding that money trail over and over. Peace out.
we have much in agreement. thank you for taking time to share out your thoughts. exchanges of ideas helps to broaden outlooks. we either discover something new, or we are motivated to dig deeper still to uncover the reasons for our beliefs. moreover, keeping dialogue open – never stifled – is the only way to light and truth.
your thoughts about god have likely been affected by rogue religions, which, typically in tandem with money, have been used for purposes of power and control. i, too, wish i had answers to solve pressing issues, and to bring about at least a reasonable level of peace.
just a suggestion. you may wish to have a look at some readings that could help bolster your spirit, your sense of being (we must have spirit, as we are energy, and we know that energy cannot be destroyed, only transferred. when i say we are energy, i refer to that essence which brings life to bodies. consider: how is it that a body, fully intact with all working parts/organs, cannot be brought to life, without that essence, or, once that essence has left?). the buddhists seem to have one of the most reasonable outlooks. moreover, some of the most interesting reads i have come across began with michael newton (journey of souls), and include brian weiss (only love is real. and, through time into healing). there are pdf versions of each of these online, if you google the titles with pdf in your search. if you are able to entertain the notion of there being a universe with light beings far more evolved than us humans, you may find some of what you may be seeking in a fascinating read, titled, a wanderer’s handbook (even if one does not believe in “intelligent life” beyond planet earth [ha ha, as if there is very much of that here], there is no denying the wisdom inherent in this book). if you google the title with pdf, you can find a readable version online. each is easy to order, if you feel any of these reads suit your curiosity.
i wish you and each of us curiosity, a desire to seek and to share our hearts. i stand by the universal law of free will. as such, we have no right to control or to try and control another. it works the other way around, too: no one has the right to control you. play with this a little. it emerges that whatever the scenario, one’s rights cannot, morally or fairly, without the other’s consent (free will) usurp the rights of another.
If I was so inclined to lean towards any spiritual beliefs, the closest I would come would be the North American Indigenous and Buddhism beliefs. Christianity has been so corrupted and abused over time by so called Christians, that it almost make me physically ill just thinking about it. BTW, like many of these threads, we start out with one subject, in this case the blame game by one political party about another and then it just goes madly off in all directions down numerous rabbit holes. Oh well.
agreed, doug. perhaps it is that we go down the numerous rabbit holes, wherever, so as to shine light where there is too little. thank you for your thoughts and for taking the time to share them well.
This isn’t a particular party problem, nor is it just occurring in Canada. It’s a global problem, and it has been occurring long before Covid.
The cost of goods and services have been increasing at a far greater rate than wages have. As such, everyone is becoming poorer. Whatever you want to call it, the system is not sustainable and will eventually fall like the proverbial house of cards.
you are correct, seth. it is fascinating that people somehow believe any of this is novel. like we have never had inflation before. like we have not seen the middle and lower classes getting crushed before (has been ongoing since at least the 1970s). like we haven’t flipped parties, going from tweedle dum to tweedle dee, over and over, generally getting the same results. yup, the masses are either entirely stubborn, or entirely in denial.
and where does one’s bacon come from? in the vast majority of cases, it comes from industrial raised hogs. hogs are among the most intelligent and sensitive creatures we harvest. they are perhaps the most cruelly and horridly treated from birth to slaughter. i figure this is just consistency in action, rachael: who cares where stuff comes from; who cares what effect it has on the whole/the large reality; who cares what suffers…so long as one is well served in any moment.
here is another concern: whenever and wherever “conservative” govts are pretending to run the show, there are deficits, increased debt, the richest getting richer, a contracting middle class, a struggling working class trying to make do with ever less. indeed, the cons love to hack and slash at the expense of the neediest, whilst always serving up goodies and the grandest pieces of the pie to the very wealthiest.
for elected reps to say they truly serve, and actually wish to serve, they should be doing so earning at the bottom end of society. only then will they know what the real issues are, and be in a position to address them. you and the lot are so way out of touch. you live and earn in the uppermost percentiles, you come away with an incredible pension, and of course, there are the greater perks still, such as massive-income lobbying opportunities and cushy directorships that will line your pockets well beyond one’s “meager” salary and perks as an mp (ditto mlas/mpps/mnas).