Fool Canadians once shame on Harper

Fool Canadians twice, shame on their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren who will have to clean up the Flaherty fiscal fiasco.

The first fooling.

My own belief is if we were going to have some kind of crash or recession, we probably would have had it by now.

The second attempt at a fooling:

"Our spending for this recession, our stimulus spending, is temporary. It will end when the recession ends and we will return gradually to budget as our revenue recovers from the recession. So absolutely we do not require tax increases," Harper said.

"We do require spending discipline over the long term. We have to make sure that when the recession ends we end the temporary spending and other spending grows at a modest rate."

The reality:

Economist Dale Orr released a report Friday calling the government's plan "unrealistic."

He said the Conservatives simply can't responsibly meet their 2015-16 target without raising taxes.

Orr proposes temporarily restoring the GST -- which the Tories cut by two percentage points -- to seven per cent until the budget is balanced again.

Parliament's independent budget officer, Kevin Page, has also suggested the government estimates are far too rosy.

How the media can listen to this without breaking out in laughter is beyond me. Harper et al. might as well wear red foam noses and big floppy shoes for all the credibility them bring to their government by saying this sort of thing.

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