PM threatens election if Opposition won't approve $3 billion "slush fund"
The economy. No doubt you’ve heard there’s been a wee bit of trouble with it lately.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper spent a good bit of time during last fall’s election campaign saying how there was nothing wrong with the economy, how anyone who thought so was off their rocker, how everything was lovely, flowers and birds.
Seems Harper’s had a bit of a change of heart in the few short months since then though.
Now he thinks the economy is in such dire straits he’s demanding $3 billion of your money and mine be handed over to a special fund without the usual checks and balances to ensure things get done correctly. Government spending is usually reviewed by MPs before being approved by votes in parliament.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel particularly comfortable about letting $3 billion – I’m gonna write it out so you can see all the zeroes: that’s $3,000,000,000 – be spent willy-nilly without any oversight.
Sounds like the makings of some major financial trouble down the road actually.
Harper is demanding Opposition MPs let his government bypass normal approval processes for the $3 billion. He says it’s important to get the money out into the faltering economy and taking shortcuts to do it is the best way. The Tories propose to spend the cash between April 1 and June 30. After it’s all been spent then they’ll let the country know what they spent it on.
And not only does Harper not want to play by the rules when it comes to dealing with taxpayer’s money, he’s up to his old tricks of threatening an election if the Opposition doesn’t hop to his demands fast.
As you can well imagine, the Opposition parties didn’t take kindly to Harper’s bizarre demand.
John McCallum, the Liberal finance critic, said the $3 billion fund would be a “blank cheque.” NDPer Thomas Mulcair wasn’t so polite. He called it a “slush fund.” Mulcair compared it to the sponsorship scandal too.
“How does one create a slush fund like the sponsorship scandal?” he said in a report.
“Well, just say that there is an emergency, that it is serving a higher purpose and therefore the normal rules will not apply.
“For the Liberals the emergency was national unity. For the Conservatives it will be the economic crisis.”
The Prime Minister defended his demands by saying Opposition parties had asked for the money to be delivered in a faster than normal way and that’s what he’s trying to do.“The Opposition has asked us to provide mechanisms by which we can flow funds far faster than we have been able to traditionally,” Harper told reporters.
Then at long last, after several months of biting his tongue, the pre-Coalition Crisis Harper I knew and loathed reared his head once again.
“Let's be clear. …These are confidence measures. We are not going to mess around with this. If the Opposition doesn't like it, they will find themselves in an election.”
This is why we pay taxes? To have bullies in power burn threw our money like it was going out of style and not tell us what they plan to spend it on till it’s all gone? And if the loyal opposition says no it's off to the polls? Enough of this garbage already.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper spent a good bit of time during last fall’s election campaign saying how there was nothing wrong with the economy, how anyone who thought so was off their rocker, how everything was lovely, flowers and birds.
Seems Harper’s had a bit of a change of heart in the few short months since then though.
Now he thinks the economy is in such dire straits he’s demanding $3 billion of your money and mine be handed over to a special fund without the usual checks and balances to ensure things get done correctly. Government spending is usually reviewed by MPs before being approved by votes in parliament.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel particularly comfortable about letting $3 billion – I’m gonna write it out so you can see all the zeroes: that’s $3,000,000,000 – be spent willy-nilly without any oversight.
Sounds like the makings of some major financial trouble down the road actually.
Harper is demanding Opposition MPs let his government bypass normal approval processes for the $3 billion. He says it’s important to get the money out into the faltering economy and taking shortcuts to do it is the best way. The Tories propose to spend the cash between April 1 and June 30. After it’s all been spent then they’ll let the country know what they spent it on.
And not only does Harper not want to play by the rules when it comes to dealing with taxpayer’s money, he’s up to his old tricks of threatening an election if the Opposition doesn’t hop to his demands fast.
As you can well imagine, the Opposition parties didn’t take kindly to Harper’s bizarre demand.
John McCallum, the Liberal finance critic, said the $3 billion fund would be a “blank cheque.” NDPer Thomas Mulcair wasn’t so polite. He called it a “slush fund.” Mulcair compared it to the sponsorship scandal too.
“How does one create a slush fund like the sponsorship scandal?” he said in a report.
“Well, just say that there is an emergency, that it is serving a higher purpose and therefore the normal rules will not apply.
“For the Liberals the emergency was national unity. For the Conservatives it will be the economic crisis.”
The Prime Minister defended his demands by saying Opposition parties had asked for the money to be delivered in a faster than normal way and that’s what he’s trying to do.“The Opposition has asked us to provide mechanisms by which we can flow funds far faster than we have been able to traditionally,” Harper told reporters.
Then at long last, after several months of biting his tongue, the pre-Coalition Crisis Harper I knew and loathed reared his head once again.
“Let's be clear. …These are confidence measures. We are not going to mess around with this. If the Opposition doesn't like it, they will find themselves in an election.”
This is why we pay taxes? To have bullies in power burn threw our money like it was going out of style and not tell us what they plan to spend it on till it’s all gone? And if the loyal opposition says no it's off to the polls? Enough of this garbage already.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 11:08 AM
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