John Robson: Trudeau Liberals believe there's a free lunch, but don't swallow it

Some quickly dismissed it as a plan to buy votes, another reflection of the annoying trope “I am principled, you are stubborn, she is ideological.” What really happened is Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland, Gerald Butts etc. spent their entire adult lives espousing modern liberal values and ideas then, seizing the pandemic “window of political opportunity,” put them into a budget.Of course politicians think about elections.

Take low interest rates … please. Freeland and her colleagues dismiss concerns about debt on the tacit assumption that interest rates and borrowing are independent variables. But some ideologues including me think interest is basically a market-clearing price, so borrowing more pushes up interest rates.

In his General Theory, John Maynard Keynes basically said people were stupid unless they were him, and their irrational “liquidity preference” made them hoard money despite attractive investment opportunities in hard times. Which is where modern “quantitative easing” finds its ideological if not technical soulmate. Spend, and ye shall receive.

Its enormous length, 724 pages, might seem to reflect an uneasy conscience. Or perhaps a belief that neither pomposity nor pride are vices. I used to complain about 400-page budgets. But as so often in life, it turned out those trying times were the good old days.At least you can still search “Summary Statement of Transactions” and find boring old revenue, spending and deficits buried in Annex A on p. 328. Because its authors don’t think budgets are about tedious bookkeeping.

Vote buying at its finest

Liberals plan on taking advantage of the economy when it comes roaring back. This will only happen when Covid is under control by letting Canadians back to full pre-pandemic workload. Does LPC know something we don’t. Is there an official end to this economic disruption.

Where is the money coming and going ? Who is getting it ? Not a common tax payer ?

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