Linda McQuaig Lauds "Job Creating", "People-Helping" Cha

By contrast, tax cuts for big corporations, cancelled in the Liberal-NDP deal, were never mentioned in the Liberal campaign. But then, that's how the Liberals have traditionally operated, promising popular social spending on the stump and then, after the election, quietly making the real budget decisions in close consultation with business lobbyists. This time, the NDP was able to force the Liberals to actually deliver on some of their election promises. Sounds almost democratic. For succumbing to this NDP pressure, a Globe editorial called Martin "weak and panicky." Yet he's never described as "weak and panicky" when he succumbs to pressure from the business elite — such as in 2000 when, as finance minister, he announced $100 billion in tax cuts. Last week, business commentators accused Martin of abandoning fiscal discipline. They know this is a ridiculous charge. The corporate taxes weren't scheduled to come into effect until 2008, so the money saved by cancelling them won't pay for the immediate social-spending increases. But Ottawa has been awash in surpluses since 1998 and will easily have enough to cover the $4.6 billion cost of the Liberal-NDP deal without going anywhere near a deficit. The $4.6 billion would have otherwise gone toward further debt reduction. But Canada already has the lowest debt burden of any G7 country. Michael McCracken, president of the economic forecasting firm Informetrica, says the increased social spending will create more jobs than putting the money toward debt reduction — or corporate tax cuts. He notes that tax cuts are usually just a windfall for corporations and often end up invested abroad. Layton has done the country a big favour. He's forced the Liberals to redirect almost $5 billion of our money — which would otherwise end up as a windfall in corporate coffers or sunk into needless debt reduction — into job-creating, people-helping social programs. Canadians might decide they like this sort of thing. No wonder business commentators sound panicky. Source:http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1114899009932&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist1022182710415