Macleans.ca: Note to Stephen Harper: It’s not so easy cutting federal spending

[tuvor]

Federal spending cuts are coming. Prime Minister Stephen Harper promises them. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is to map out the strategy—though maybe not many specifics—in his March 4 budget. Stockwell Day, in his new job as Treasury Board President, is supposed to stare down any bureaucratic resistance.

But where will the Conservatives cut? Start anyplace, a jaded taxpayer might say. After all, federal governments haven’t exactly looked frugal in recent times. Even before last year’s massive deficit-financed stimulus injection to fight the recession, spending rose more than four per cent a year, under both Liberals and Tories, in six consecutive budgets.

Yet the notion that layers of glistening blubber are just waiting to be hacked off is only a comforting delusion. There must be fat, sure, but the federal books are well marbled—the less-than-unassailable spending tends to be finely integrated into essential programs. No use pretending that finding savings huge enough on their own to balance the books again is merely a matter of will.

In fact, some of those most experienced on the subject think the task impossible. Start with two key architects of the famously successful deficit-slaying strategy overseen by Paul Martin when he was finance minister: Scott Clark, who was Martin’s deputy minister from 1997-2000, and Peter DeVries, the department’s fiscal policy director from 1990-2005.

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http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/22/note-to-stephen-harper-it%E2%80%99s-not-so-easy-cutting-federal-spending/

[HeresyLives]

1. They don't plan to fix 'fat.'

They plan to eliminate social programs they don't like. Which is pretty much all of them.

[Bragi]

2. The idea that cuts will be hard for Harper is laughable

Cuts are only a problem if you value the services that government provides. In Harper's case, for ideological reasons, he places no value on government programs or services, especially those delivered by the federal government, which he has been open about wanting to weaken.

He would therefore be delighted for the opportunity to downsize and crush government for a generation.

If Ignatieff and Layton continue to refuse to combine forces to defeat Harper, then Harper will certainly be pleased to continue in power, and even pretend to be regretful about taking the ax to our national government, while in fact relishing every moment of it.

- B

[HeresyLives]

3. I agree.

This is a tailor-made situation for Harper. He's wanted to eliminate the federal govt from the beginning, and the best way to do it is to de-fund it.