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Originally Posted by MarchHare
"givs us back some of OUR OWN money"? Certainly not mine. What Harper is actually proposing is taking my tax dollars and giving them directly to Canadian parents, with no oversight or controls on how it can be spent.
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The gov't is
already taking your tax dollars, and there's not a damn thing you can do about that right now. In Canada, and most (if not all) Western nations, if you're above the average income level, you contribute more than you receive. So your only choice relates to how you want someone to spend that money.
You'd prefer that the governments retain control of the spending, because then at least you'd know that it goes towards child care instead of cigarettes and booze. That's a valid opinion. However, I can't agree with it because a huge increase in *program spending* like this is perpetual. It will lead to permanently higher taxes. Program spending has proven to be seriously addictive, as demonstrated by the current health care system.
On the other hand, if the government gives cash directly to citizens, it isn't really "program spending," but simply an unequal tax refund. This kind of thing isn't nearly as addictive as spending. Over time, this "refund" can be slowly converted to plain old tax credits, thereby cutting out the federal government "middle man," with no net change in government spending.
We HAVE to wean the government off of its spending addiction, and the only way to do that is to give them less control over our money. A socialist "private-wealth-redistribution" is preferable in the short term as opposed to a long-term chain around the neck of all of us (again, health care as example).