The Deficit Is Not An Economic Problem; It’s A Political Weapon
Mark Carney’s long-anticipated investment-austerity budget has finally been tabled before Parliament and it’s set to raise the deficit to $78 billion. While the details of the budget will be debated over the coming weeks, the big picture is that the prime minister delivered on his promises: expanded defence and infrastructure spending “offset” by more than $50 billion in cuts and other savings. For months Carney has been laying the groundwork for these moves, making high-profile statements about Canada’s supposed spending problem and promising to discipline government workers in order to restore fiscal sanity.