Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Attention Peeps in the Federal Government
I noticed this before I stopped posting on my blog before, but I am going to comment on it again. It seems that quite a few people in the federal government read my little blog and I was wondering who in the big house is reading it. I was wondering if it is fellow Liberals reading my blog and wondering if free speech was a good thing, or is it the NDP trying to get an idea, or is it the Bloc reaffirming their ideals on separating from Canada, or is it the Emo's (see my blogs tagline or this post) grabbing evidence so I get put on a terrorist no-fly list. We all know you are reading it, just let us know who you are, there are several from the House of Commons, a few from GTIS, some from the Privy Council, we even got the Department of Foreign Affairs. Just let me know who you are, and in case you aren't actually an important figure (ie. MP, higher up in their party) then just let us know your affiliation with your party. I am just sooooooo god damn curious about who you people actually are. You can say whatever you want about me or my blog as this is a nation of free speech.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Damn I am Good
Back at the end of June I commented on the Cons military spending increase....and it is starting to come true. At the end of the post I wrote the following:
"They are going to pull an Ontario PC government by trying to buy votes, hide debt and then complain when the new Liberal government comes into power and has to cut all of the governments spending."
Now, in a little article seen here, it looks like the Cons are right on track for the whole master plan thing. First off, how the hell can a government lose over 3 billion dollars in 2 months. Now last year, the housing crunch was being felt in the US, but we in Canada were still relatively unaffected. Even at the beginning of 2008, the federal government was still earning running a substantial surplus, but the US economic problems were still getting worse. So what does our great government do? Give more tax cuts to the wealthy and big business, and hope that oil goes up to $200 a barrel to pay for it all. (Now when the Cons release the balance in 2 months, everyone will have to take into account the 4.2 billion dollar surplus from the spectrum auction. If it is below a 4.2 billion dollar surplus, the government is still running a deficit.) Since the price of oil will continue to drop for the rest of the year possibly as low as $70 a barrel, the federal coffers will be all but empty. We will be several billion dollars in the red, services will have to be cut in order to pay for it all, and taxes will have to go up. Every single time the Liberals cut spending, the Cons will be up in arms about how the Liberals keep on hurting Canadians by trying to balance the budget even though they destroyed a decade of fiscal solvency with 2 years of sheer ineptitude. Now before anyone says anything, the last part was after the election this fall when the Liberals get back into power after the August/September budget results come in and the government is in the red by over 1 billion dollars.
"They are going to pull an Ontario PC government by trying to buy votes, hide debt and then complain when the new Liberal government comes into power and has to cut all of the governments spending."
Now, in a little article seen here, it looks like the Cons are right on track for the whole master plan thing. First off, how the hell can a government lose over 3 billion dollars in 2 months. Now last year, the housing crunch was being felt in the US, but we in Canada were still relatively unaffected. Even at the beginning of 2008, the federal government was still earning running a substantial surplus, but the US economic problems were still getting worse. So what does our great government do? Give more tax cuts to the wealthy and big business, and hope that oil goes up to $200 a barrel to pay for it all. (Now when the Cons release the balance in 2 months, everyone will have to take into account the 4.2 billion dollar surplus from the spectrum auction. If it is below a 4.2 billion dollar surplus, the government is still running a deficit.) Since the price of oil will continue to drop for the rest of the year possibly as low as $70 a barrel, the federal coffers will be all but empty. We will be several billion dollars in the red, services will have to be cut in order to pay for it all, and taxes will have to go up. Every single time the Liberals cut spending, the Cons will be up in arms about how the Liberals keep on hurting Canadians by trying to balance the budget even though they destroyed a decade of fiscal solvency with 2 years of sheer ineptitude. Now before anyone says anything, the last part was after the election this fall when the Liberals get back into power after the August/September budget results come in and the government is in the red by over 1 billion dollars.
Any One Else See Anything Wrong With This???
I was bored while surfing the net and I came across this.
Now I don't know why but this banner really confuses me. Do they mean that everyone that teaches is a Liberal? Or does it mean that we are supposed to fight the man by becoming a member of the Reform Party...oops, I mean the Canadian Alliance....damn, I mean the Con party? Last time I checked, the Cons were still in power so wouldn't that mean that we should be joining a party that isn't affiliated with the Cons? Or are they saying that nobody in their right mind would actually vote for the Cons so you should vote for them so you won't be a conformist? So the Cons are now the new emo? Wait I like that one....let me just say that again, THE CONS ARE THE NEW EMO!!!!! It makes me chuckle inside. I am still trying to wrap my head around this banner and it makes absolutely no sense.
Now I don't know why but this banner really confuses me. Do they mean that everyone that teaches is a Liberal? Or does it mean that we are supposed to fight the man by becoming a member of the Reform Party...oops, I mean the Canadian Alliance....damn, I mean the Con party? Last time I checked, the Cons were still in power so wouldn't that mean that we should be joining a party that isn't affiliated with the Cons? Or are they saying that nobody in their right mind would actually vote for the Cons so you should vote for them so you won't be a conformist? So the Cons are now the new emo? Wait I like that one....let me just say that again, THE CONS ARE THE NEW EMO!!!!! It makes me chuckle inside. I am still trying to wrap my head around this banner and it makes absolutely no sense.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Con's "$30 Billion" Spending Plan
Yeah, I know it has been a while (over 1 year) but this little tidbit of info just passed by everyone and I just couldn't let it slide by. Back in May, the cons announced their new military spending plan that would increase spending by $30 billion over the next 20 years. Now a $1.5 billion increase per year to buy new equipment and train new soldiers seemed like a nice little boost to the military to help keep the military up to date and the fact that it would be a 5% increase in current spending seemed fiscally conservative especially for this government. Well, that plan of theirs ended up being considerably higher as seen by their dead of night spending increase of the military.
Currently, the Canadian government spends $17 billion on the military for troops, equipment, training, and any other expenditures that may arise. With their new proposal, the cons would spend close to $25 billion a year. That is almost a 50% increase in spending. Now that is more like the cons I know and despise. Even with these raw numbers there can still be some interpretation, so let’s break down the numbers.
1. $250 billion in military salaries in the next 20 years. There are currently 87,000 troops (62,000 full time & 25,000 part time) in the military and the cons plan on increasing it to 100,000 (70,000 full time & 30,000 part time) over the next 20 years. Let’s do the calculations shall we...say we had the 70,000 troops tomorrow and paid them full time salary of $66,000/yr which is the top pay a soldier would get paid after 5 years of service, give them a 2% pay increase every year and let’s see how much would be spent:
(70,000 troops x $66,000) = $4,620,000,000
That’s right folks, 70,000 troops being paid the maximum salary would only be paid $4.6 billion during the first year. If you add in the 2% annual pay increase and total it up over the next 20 years, the grand total would be $112,253,848,471. Yup, $112 billion in 20 years. Even if you make it 105,000 full time troops, it would only be $168,380,772,706.50. Now of course the actual pay would be lower because the 30,000 part time troops would be paid less than the full time troops, and not everyone will be paid the maximum pay, but I just wanted to see how close I could come to the cons numbers....and I could barely get half way there. Where the hell is the other $100+ billion going to?
2. $60 billion for new equipment. Since I have no clue about how many pieces of equipment need to be replaced, I won't comment on it except for that this seems a little high.
3. $140 billion on training and maintenance. Like the new equipment, I don't know how much these costs are, but these also seem rather high.
4. $40 billion on new buildings and infrastructure. That is crazy too high. Even if they replace every building with a new one this would not even get to $40 billion. What the hell are they spending this money on?
I think somebody with more knowledge of military spending should take a look this because this seems far too excessive for a government to spend. When the cons say $30 billion increase over 20 years and they mean $130 billion, makes you think about how poor their fiscal management is. Do they seriously think that oil will keep on going up every year and surpluses will keep on going up too? I know they are mainly from Alberta and most Albertans think the good times will always last (oil price increase in the 70's followed by bottoming out of the market in the early 80's) but they will be in for a rude awakening in a couple of years when the price of oil settles back down. Wait a minute...that’s it!!! Now I know what they are doing. They are going to pull an Ontario PC government by trying to buy votes, hide debt and then complain when the new Liberal government comes into power and has to cut all of the governments spending. (clap, clap, clap) Bravo stupid con people, that is a very...um...dumb move.
Currently, the Canadian government spends $17 billion on the military for troops, equipment, training, and any other expenditures that may arise. With their new proposal, the cons would spend close to $25 billion a year. That is almost a 50% increase in spending. Now that is more like the cons I know and despise. Even with these raw numbers there can still be some interpretation, so let’s break down the numbers.
1. $250 billion in military salaries in the next 20 years. There are currently 87,000 troops (62,000 full time & 25,000 part time) in the military and the cons plan on increasing it to 100,000 (70,000 full time & 30,000 part time) over the next 20 years. Let’s do the calculations shall we...say we had the 70,000 troops tomorrow and paid them full time salary of $66,000/yr which is the top pay a soldier would get paid after 5 years of service, give them a 2% pay increase every year and let’s see how much would be spent:
(70,000 troops x $66,000) = $4,620,000,000
That’s right folks, 70,000 troops being paid the maximum salary would only be paid $4.6 billion during the first year. If you add in the 2% annual pay increase and total it up over the next 20 years, the grand total would be $112,253,848,471. Yup, $112 billion in 20 years. Even if you make it 105,000 full time troops, it would only be $168,380,772,706.50. Now of course the actual pay would be lower because the 30,000 part time troops would be paid less than the full time troops, and not everyone will be paid the maximum pay, but I just wanted to see how close I could come to the cons numbers....and I could barely get half way there. Where the hell is the other $100+ billion going to?
2. $60 billion for new equipment. Since I have no clue about how many pieces of equipment need to be replaced, I won't comment on it except for that this seems a little high.
3. $140 billion on training and maintenance. Like the new equipment, I don't know how much these costs are, but these also seem rather high.
4. $40 billion on new buildings and infrastructure. That is crazy too high. Even if they replace every building with a new one this would not even get to $40 billion. What the hell are they spending this money on?
I think somebody with more knowledge of military spending should take a look this because this seems far too excessive for a government to spend. When the cons say $30 billion increase over 20 years and they mean $130 billion, makes you think about how poor their fiscal management is. Do they seriously think that oil will keep on going up every year and surpluses will keep on going up too? I know they are mainly from Alberta and most Albertans think the good times will always last (oil price increase in the 70's followed by bottoming out of the market in the early 80's) but they will be in for a rude awakening in a couple of years when the price of oil settles back down. Wait a minute...that’s it!!! Now I know what they are doing. They are going to pull an Ontario PC government by trying to buy votes, hide debt and then complain when the new Liberal government comes into power and has to cut all of the governments spending. (clap, clap, clap) Bravo stupid con people, that is a very...um...dumb move.
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