Deficit by choice

It's all too rare for anybody to draw the obvious links between the Cons' gratuitous tax slashing and the deficit they'd managed to create even before putting a dime into stimulus spending. But Frances Russell notes that the Cons' tax cutting accounts for more than enough lost money to cover the expected six years of deficits:

On the tax side, Conservative cuts to date will result in forgone federal revenues of $220 billion between 2007 and 2013. Almost 30 per cent -- $60 billion -- will go to Canadian big business.

The tax cuts will be financed, not through the supply-siders' dream of an economic boom, but with borrowed money. Ottawa is forecast to post a $169-billion deficit over the same period.