Balancing the Books

Republicans are celebrating today. The forecasted deficit for fiscal year 2006 is now down to $296 billion instead of the $ 423 billion predicted five months ago. I’m trying to wrap my mind around this. A $296 billion deficit! That’s like I decide to go shopping, go nuts on Prada and Gucci and Dior, buy (or take over or what have you) some prime middle eastern real estate and wind up spend $ 296 billion dollars more than I earn in one single year. Granted I’m not a country of 300 million plus people, but still.

The real clincher is that when Bush came to office he inherited a surplus of $284 billion! At that time, the Bush administration predicted a $516 billion surplus for 2006. (I’m quoting directly here from Daily Kos – you can check out their website for more figures, details, and sources).

This kind of stuff makes me proud to be a member of the Liberal party. This is the party that managed to take the $42 billion deficit legacy of the Conservative party and turn it all around to deliver 8 consecutive balanced budgets. Never before done in the history of Canada!

I know this is a strange thing to get excited about – but can you imagine that an individual just went crazy and spent not even $42 billion, but let’s say just $42 million dollars more than they make in a year! Let’s just hope that Stevie’s not picking up any accounting tips from his new BFF Georgie…It’d be a real shame for the Tories to put us back 14 years.

To quote a wise Liberal from out west: “Conservative times are bad times.”