Alberta Politics Thread

[OMG!WTF!]

People forget that part two of most legitimate economists' call for a PST is that you also have to lower income taxes across all levels. Otherwise it is just a drag on the economy.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

People forget that part two of most legitimate economists' call for a PST is that you also have to lower income taxes across all levels. Otherwise it is just a drag on the economy.

"Lower taxes" is a completely foreign concept to the NDP and those dragging them even farther left. Tax and spend, tax more and spend more, tax the most and spend the most....that's ALL this government will accomplish during this reign of horror.

im surprised the manifestoites aren't screaming for all incomes to be put into a large pot and the the chief of the nannies determines who gets what and what is a "fair" share.

Good lord what an epic disaster this budget and this gang of buffoons are.

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by transplant99

"Lower taxes" is a completely foreign concept to the NDP and those dragging them even farther left. Tax and spend, tax more and spend more, tax the most and spend the most....that's ALL this government will accomplish during this reign of horror.

im surprised the manifestoites aren't screaming for all incomes to be put into a large pot and the the chief of the nannies determines who gets what and what is a "fair" share.

Good lord what an epic disaster this budget and this gang of buffoons are.

You've become a caricature.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Bootsy

Absolutely not. Until the NDP government can show to be more efficient or at the very least attempt an effort to reduce spending and waste there is no way I would be accepting to give them another cent. Nothing they have done so far shows me they are capable and they are already increasing taxes in the disguise of a "carbon levy".
I have zero trust in them to use tax dollars wisely and flat out refuse to contribute anymore to the current government fat and entitlement while the private sector struggles.

Which is why in every comment on the issue I've also said we need to cut spending. That's what's so frustrating about the politics around the province's finances. Those on the left think we can get muddle through by raising taxes and not cutting spending. Those on the right think we can balance the budget by cutting spending only. Both are deluded by ideology - we need to do both. Is practical centrism even politically viable in this province?

[Azure]

Well if it were viable the Liberals would probably be in charge right now.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Well ya, if you completely ignore the first part of my statement. And perhaps half of revenues to the heritage fund, and half payed out.

While the Ralph bucks are still derided today, it's basically the carbon tax and dividend plan championed by a number of people including noted climate scientist James Hansen.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Which is why in every comment on the issue I've also said we need to cut spending. That's what's so frustrating about the politics around the province's finances. Those on the left think we can get muddle through by raising taxes and not cutting spending. Those on the right think we can balance the budget by cutting spending only. Both are deluded by ideology - we need to do both. Is practical centrism even politically viable in this province?

We need to do both.

A PST would be a much better idea than a carbon tax with rebates. As it stands now, their "levy" is a poorly disguised wealth transfer from to the "top" 35% of families to the other 65%.

[Locke]

How about we reverse engineer this NDP style?

How much money do we need? Total. All in. Whats the dollar number that we need?

Then we can estimate how much the Carbon tax will bring in ($3.5B), we know that they're anticipating $1.4B in Oil Revenue and whats the estimate on a sales tax? Say its about the same as the Carbon tax? So $3.5B?

Now we just raise the corporate and personal tax rates to match what the Government needs to run.

Simple Math.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Which is why in every comment on the issue I've also said we need to cut spending. That's what's so frustrating about the politics around the province's finances. Those on the left think we can get muddle through by raising taxes and not cutting spending. Those on the right think we can balance the budget by cutting spending only. Both are deluded by ideology - we need to do both. Is practical centrism even politically viable in this province?

I think the issue is more that pragmatic people are opposed to increasing the tax burden (and reducing competitive advantage) when there appears to be no pay off in the form of prudent spending cuts as well as the absence of measures in favor of private sector job creation, entrepreneurship, or defense of the energy industry that, like it or not, employs hundreds of thousands of taxpayers and is the life blood of this province.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Locke

Simple Math.

Half of my facebook feed doesn't get that you're being sarcastic and likes your post.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Locke

How about we reverse engineer this NDP style?

How much money do we need? Total. All in. Whats the dollar number that we need?

Then we can estimate how much the Carbon tax will bring in ($3.5B), we know that they're anticipating $1.4B in Oil Revenue and whats the estimate on a sales tax? Say its about the same as the Carbon tax? So $3.5B?

Now we just raise the corporate and personal tax rates to match what the Government needs to run.

Simple Math.

This sounds suspiciously like an argument that I had with my dad when I was a kid when I blew my weekly allowance by the first day. So I went to my dad all full of arrogance and said, I need a bigger allowance.

My dad set down the paper and took a long drag of his cigarette because back in the 70's every parent smoked and read the paper in a leather chair while wearing a sweater or a suit.

He said really why?

And I said that the allowance that he gave me wasn't enough in these modern times, because I was amazingly sophisticated in my speech when I was young.

He told me that I might want to cut down my spending and stop pissing it away on cigarettes and comic books because in the 70's everyone smoked and because it was unfair for me to foist my stupidity in terms of spending on the people that were giving me the money. So request denied.

Then he sent me out to buy him a pack of smokes because in the 70's preteens and teens could buy cigarettes without a note.

[Kjesse]

CBC just aired a story suggesting the NDP across the country was the "Big Orange Train Wreck".

Highlights were, the Manifesto, not playing nice with Notley about it, discarding their current leader and having a long play to replace him that leaves the party rudderless, and now it looks like they might lose Manitoba in the upcoming provincial election.

For Albertans, we just have to continue to endure the choice we made, which really was more about getting rid of the PC's and not feeling the social conservative vibes of the Wildrose, than actually embracing the NDP.

Strong medicine, but we'll recover. Alberta can survive one term of NDP rule. Well, at least, it will still be here.

In the mean time our provincial NDP will continue to move to more popular policies. Look at the headlines the last couple of weeks -- Notley politely asking the Federal party to be nice to Alberta, her government even suggested unions might have to give a little. Small steps, but they know full well the trouble they are in.

Although, that budget was a disaster. They played it well though, it's not getting a lot of press because they had already been telling us to expect it.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Half of my facebook feed doesn't get that you're being sarcastic and likes your post.

Time to cull the herd.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

This sounds suspiciously like an argument that I had with my dad when I was a kid when I blew my weekly allowance by the first day. So I went to my dad all full of arrogance and said, I need a bigger allowance.

My dad set down the paper and took a long drag of his cigarette because back in the 70's every parent smoked and read the paper in a leather chair while wearing a sweater or a suit.

He said really why?

And I said that the allowance that he gave me wasn't enough in these modern times, because I was amazingly sophisticated in my speech when I was young.

He told me that I might want to cut down my spending and stop pissing it away on cigarettes and comic books because in the 70's everyone smoked and because it was unfair for me to foist my stupidity in terms of spending on the people that were giving me the money. So request denied.

Then he sent me out to buy him a pack of smokes because in the 70's preteens and teens could buy cigarettes without a note.

Thanked because we might be siblings.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Makarov

You've become a caricature.

Funnily enough, several of those that thanked you for this along with yourself would fall into the same category by many standards.

[cal_guy]

Originally Posted by Bend it like Bourgeois

^^ the budget pegs a pretty meaningful jump in rates for them in 2 years. I think they are pricing in even more credit downgrades to come.

Since Alberta's debt market is relatively small I'm betting that bond yields will actually fall relative to the baseline for a while as liquidity builds. In any case rating agencies matter very little for government debt since the difference in 30 year yields between Alberta (which still has one of the best ratings among provinces) and Newfoundland (which has one of the worst) is about 0.2%.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Funnily enough, several of those that thanked you for this along with yourself would fall into the same category by many standards.

[chemgear]

Throwing this in here because we have and will have to pay for stuff like this somehow:

http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-he...days-1.2864428

A CTV News Investigation looked into the sick days taken by Alberta Health Services managers and found that hundreds of people were taking months of sick leave at the expense of provincial taxpayers.

Documents acquired through access to information requests show hundreds of managers taking time off and collecting full pay over the last two years.

AHS managers are allowed to take 16 weeks of sick time and in many cases they did exactly that, before returning to work.

AHS says four months of fully paid sick time isn't excessive and that it's common across Canada in this sector.

AHS acknowledged that sick time is costing it millions and that it created an attendance awareness program for staff, which has led to a one percent drop in sick time.

[Fuzz]

How did that even happen??? Who allowed that? Jeez. And Sliver says teachers get a lot of time off...

[shermanator]

So Ric McIver was just kicked out of the legislature this afternoon.

Tory Leader Ric McIver was ordered to leave the legislative assembly Monday after he challenged a ruling by Speaker Bob Wanner, claiming a copy of the decision was circulated in the house before the speaker heard any argument.

McIver eventually marched out with several fellow PC MLAs shortly after 5 p.m. after refusing several requests from Wanner to either sit down or leave.

“I will not sit down unless you reverse the ruling that you made,” McIver told Wanner before he was escorted out by the Sergeant of Arms Brian Hodgson.

The interim Progressive Conservative leader told Postmedia he didn’t know when he would return.

“I am new at this, sir,” he said.”I have no idea what happens next. The dignity of the house must be upheld, full stop.”

http://calgaryherald.com/news/politi...enging-speaker