Chantal Hebert of The Toronto Star agrees…numerous economists agree…god help me, even Andrew Coyne agrees…
Cutting the GST is a brilliant political move on the part of Stephen Harper.
However…cutting the GST is a stupid policy move. Aside from the fact that it helps to bring in the billions of dollars in surplus money needed to pay down debt AND pay for social programs, wouldn’t it be better if personal income taxes were slashed? What happened to that policy plank of Conservative thinking? Especially in a day and age when productivity is declining, and more people would probably prefer to bring home more money with their pay cheque, as opposed to saving a few bucks at the store.
After all, how often do you buy a big ticket item? Certainly, this isn’t going to help the huge chunk of the population in the lowest income bracket — they’re not likely to welcome the chance to save hundreds of dollars purchasing a Toyota they can’t afford in the first place!
So, I grudgingly give the Dark Prince his due: the GST cut has certainly set the cat amongst the political-agenda-pigeons…
…but whether or not it flies a long way, this early in a two month campaign, is another matter.
