Optimism, Sort Of

Here's the best spin I've seen on things for a while...

Although he sees a reviving economy, he doesn't see growth in GDP above 3% which means no new jobs beyond covering natural growth in the popluation, so the 8 million unemployed, stay unemployed.

He remarks that Ben Bernanke has done all he can and is pleading with Congress to provide some fiscal stimulus (i.e. put money in the hands of people who will spend, not the billionaires and millionaires who will simply sock it away).

Sadly he comes up with the usual litany of right wing "proposals": tax cuts for the rich, get rid of health care because it is "onerous", and he wants to race to the bottom in lowering taxes for business. He mentions that "Vancouver will have a max corporate tax rate of 15%". Hmm... I live in the Vancouver part of the world and the Liberal party just blew up, the party leader has resigned, the tax cuts the leader announced as a way to buy voter support is now off the table. I don't know explicitly about corporate tax rates, but I would be surprised if Vancouver is going to see a 15% rate in 2012.

What bothers me is that the rich are doing a "race to the bottom" by arguing that the other guy has cut taxes so you've got to cut them even more. If that is the "right solution" then why not abolish taxes all together. We will simply put a tin can by municipal halls, provincial government buildings, and the federal parliament and let people drop by and put some coins in the can to keep government going as "the spirit moves them". Yeah, sure! I'm sure business men are going to be real happy when police disappear and thieves come out of the woodwork to rob at will. (Think Mexico where kidnappings of the rich are rampant, or Columbia a few years ago.) You get the government you pay for. By constantly pushing to "lower onerous taxes" the rich may get something they really didn't want!