Quote:
Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor
The problems caused in 08 in the US were much different than what happened in Greece, yet their current spending problems as very similar to Greece. The are spending more than they have. Yes, not on social programs but on other programs, mostly military. At the end of the day it is the same problem, spending more than you have. In the US, they can cut military spending fairly easy, in Greece, when you have a society built on expected social programs, not so easy to cut. This is evident in all the riots and government collapses going on.
The last bolded part: This is a type response I see from the left. Why is Harper spending money on jets. Do you know how many hospitals that could build? Do you know how many teacher that could hire? We are going to need new jets, that is a fact. The F-18s were not built to last forever. If we as a country want to defend our social programs and our freedoms we need to have the ability to defend it. I just don't understand why you people cannot see this. But whatever, if you can't see that Canadians are being nickled and dimed to death, well, there is not much I can do. Every extra fee and tax that gets added to our bill always starts with a phrase like what we are talking about. "Why would anyone care, it's only 75 cents per person." At what point, do all the dollars and cents add up to a point where Canadians are tapped out?
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Again with the left/right rhetoric and just plain ignoring that there is/was an obvious choice made here. Canadians are being told we can't possibly afford this kind of spending in one breath and in the next the cost of the fighter jets jumps by billions of dollars.
I know you desperately want to turn this into a partisan discussion, but again its not. The US is in the same position and for the exact same reason as the path Canada is choosing here. You alluded to this in your post. I would also submit that it is much easier to cut the program spending we're talking about here than it is to cut military spending. You seem to think that the US could simply do this, but I think its a lot harder.
What this all boils down to though is basically nothing. Its $20M. You can't even buy a nice bridge for that kind of money. Can Bev Oda even get a hotel room and OJ with that? If this is where the government has arrived in their prioritizing to save money and meet budget projections though, things must be pretty bleak.