Like the man himself, Flaherty’s deficit projections are not credible

Flaherty’s fiscal projections are completely lacking in any credibility. How can we expect Flaherty to estimate the deficit forecast for the next four years, if he has proven himself unable to accurately project the surplus/deficit for 2008? Flaherty was projecting a budget surplus for 2008 during the election of some $800 million. The real number is a DEFICIT of $1.1 billion, representing a swing factor of 2.4 times. How are we to place any faith in Flaherty’s ability to project our budget four years out, if he is unable to accurately project our fiscal situation a mere four months out?

The other concern that I have with Flaherty’s deficit budget is there is nothing in this budget that will reverse the tide of deficits apart form a whole lot of wishful thinking and finger crossing. Flaherty promised his budget would have provisions specifically designed to get us out of a deficit situation. Where are they? Meanwhile how long will it take to recover the $86 billion in deficits to be incurred over the next four years? 10 years? 12 years? Ten years would mean the year 2019. Tweleve years would mean the year 2021? If so, what became of Flaherty’s promise that Canada would have a net debt position of zero by the year 2021? What has that promise now morphed into? 2031? 2035? Never?
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