Framing the debate over deficits

Elections tend to polarize debate. Everything becomes “Either… or…” 

Either you are in favour of our current military stand against ISIS or you are opposed to military action against ISIS. The truth, of course, is more nuanced. It’s not either/or. There are lots of options: More, less, none, or different. I am in favour of expanded, long term UN military operations against ISIS something which is not even on the table in this Canadian election or anywhere else. This this is often framed as either you support our troops or you don’t. Ludicrous. I can support our troops and still be critical of a particular military campaign. Just as I can support Israel and be critical of some Israeli policy. Support the Palestinian cause and be critical of some of their policy. Support our education system and be critical of some of our curriculum. Life is not either/or. Government policy is not either/or and neither is the dialogue. Except in parliament or during elections.

Either you are in favour of taxation or you are opposed to taxation. Um… essentially everybody is in favour of taxation. The debate is about  how much and upon whom? I am in favour of a modestly more progressive taxation system than we currently have. But I have an open mind and am willing to consider all sorts of things. Most importantly, it’s not “I hate tax” because you don’t hate tax. Nobody does. Go live off the grid if you really hate tax that much. Good luck and good riddance just don't come around here trying to share in the bounty that is provided by ... um ... taxation. You might hate how much you pay compare to others. You might hate the distribution. But, you don’t hate taxes unless you just don’t get the whole centralized government thing.

Either you are you are in favour of deficits or you are opposed to deficits. I find it interesting that Harper rails against deficits when as the Prime Minster of Canada he has not ever balanced a budget. He ran six consecutive years of deficit budgets. He planned to run a deficit for a seventh year but the government planning missed and he accidentally ran a small surplus. Oops. An accidental surplus. So, Harper is clearly in favour of deficits. The debate is not either there should be a deficit or there should not be a deficit. The debate is “Under what circumstances is it appropriate for the Canadian government to run a deficit and is our current state such that we should run a deficit?” I don’t actually have much of an opinion on this as I am not much of an economist. Prima facie I would be opposed to substantial deficits as this is not the way that I run my own affairs. But, I am not opposed to some deficit spending from time to time as this the way I run my own affairs.