Friday, September 11, 2009

Of fear-mongering and falsifying numbers


Please have a read of the Liberal press release below in which the Harper Conservatives have clearly overstated the cost of the Liberal’s EI proposal by a factor of 4 to 1, and the comment is made

"Canadians do not need fear-mongering and falsifying numbers from their federal government,”

Why would anyone trust any number coming from the Harper CONs?

There seems to a consistent pattern of deception going on here. Have the media noticed it?

Just like the fear-mongering and falsifying about tax leakage......that destroyed people’s life savings and hopes for a dignified retirement in order that Canada’s lifeco’s could sell more of their flawed investment products and stifle competition for Canadians’ retirement savings.

Conservative deception laid bare by PBO analysis


OTTAWA - Independent third-party validation has confirmed that the Conservative government acted in bad faith this summer with the Employment Insurance Working Group, Liberal MPs said today.

“Instead of working together in good faith to find common ground to help the unemployed, the Conservatives chose to misrepresent our proposal and waste time while unemployed Canadians waited for help,” said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page issued his report today that concludes that $1.148 billion is “a reasonable estimate of the cost” of the Liberal proposal to provide a national standard for EI eligibility of 360 hours on a temporary basis.

Mr. Page was asked to do the independent analysis after the Conservatives deliberately skewed the numbers to peg the cost at $4 billion in an attempt to scare Canadians into believing that the Liberal proposal wasn’t feasible.

In his report, Mr. Page called the government’s costing “flawed” and “not consistent” with the Liberal proposal.

“Canadians do not need fear-mongering and falsifying numbers from their federal government,” said EI Working Group member Marlene Jennings.

“We gave an honest effort to get work done for unemployed Canadians,” said Liberal Human Resources Critic Michael Savage. “It’s disappointing that Conservative members of the group wasted this opportunity to make Parliament work.

To view the full report: http://www.liberal.ca/pdf/docs/EI_Estimate_360h_E.pdf

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Contact:

Press Office
Office of the Leader of the Opposition
613-996-6740

2 comments:

Dr Mike said...

It`s time to toss Jim Flaherty to the wind & hire Kevin Page as our "New" Finance Minister.

Imagine the shock of having someone who can count & who actually tells it like it is for a change.

Talk about refreshing.

Dr Mike Popovich

DerekB said...

Certainly the Conservatives use fear-mongering to avoid extending the new EI programs.

But I think this is one time where they were actually right in doing so, surprisingly.

The expansion of government is one of the slowest and most inevitable evils in a democracy - government's take resources from the productive part of society and apply it to the political side. The buy votes. A little entitlement here, a little favour there (see Manulife and Neo-Con/Harper government), etc etc.

But actually expanding E.I. had little long term benefit. Stats have shown that, no matter WHAT the cost, most recipients of Employment Insurance use it to the maximum amount before finding another job. All you're doing by extending E.I. is take MORE money from the people who are still producing and giving it to the people who aren't - think about that for a second.

If you are TRULY against taxing income trusts, and against income tax too, you guys should check out the Libertarian Party. I am a voting member and I'm also educated in the Austrian School of Economics, and it's demonstrable using about 3000 years of history that we need to radically shift the power that our government has over us - THIS is what will bring us out of the Depression.

http://www.libertarian.ca
http://www.mises.org
http://www.investophoria.com