Middle-class families now pay more taxes

[Gone_Fishin]

GUNTER: So much for Trudeau's pledge: Middle-class families now pay more taxes


Lorne Gunter
Published:
January 10, 2018


Despite his rhetorical devotion to the middle-class, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has turned out to be no friend of ordinary, working Canadians.

According to data published by Vancouver’s Fraser Institute in a year-end analysis, “81% of middle-class families in Canada are paying higher federal income taxes” under the Liberals than under the Harper Tories.

And the increase under the Liberals has been substantial, too, “about $840 more a year,” according to Fraser Institute.

That’s the equivalent of half a mortgage payment or one season’s hockey registration. It’s money the Libs are taking for government priorities rather than leaving with families to spend as they need.

snip

Remember the Liberals’ ads late in the last election campaign? They promised the rich would “pay a little more” so the middle class could pay lower taxes.

This was always silly (and at the same time dangerous) thinking. It was silly because the math behind it could never work.

There are just over 200,000 Canadians in the 1% – the people Trudeau claimed he was talking about when he said “rich.” (And, as a side note, almost as many of them are from the public sector – bureaucrats, judges, hospital administrators, university officials and so on – as from the private.)

Meanwhile, there are just over 13 million middle-class Canadians.

Given that the 1% already pay over 20% of all income tax in Canada, and that they already pay an average of 56% of their income to one level of government or another, there aren’t and never have been enough wealthy Canadians to fund Trudeau’s dream of broad-based middle-class tax relief.

And Trudeau’s rhetoric while campaigning and governing has been dangerous because it is riddled with class envy. It seeks to convince middle-class Canadians that the “rich” are nasty people who are out to screw the rest of us.

Trudeau’s promises about helping the middle class are almost always preceded by a promise to punish the “wealthy.” Why is that necessary? It strikes me as not the Canadian way of looking at things.

And if, as a middle-class Canadian, you feel your economic fortunes have stagnated in recent decades – that you’re not taking home as much money as you once did – isn’t that more likely the result of higher property taxes from your municipality, higher income taxes and utility rates from your province and higher everything from Ottawa?

Job-killing environmental policies from the provinces and Ottawa have had more negative impact on the middle-class than all the alleged investment windfalls hauled in by the “rich.”

Rapacious governments are a far greater enemy of ordinary Canadians. Four out of five middle-class Canadians (and 60% of low-income Canadians) are paying more taxes now because while the Trudeau government lowered middle-class tax rates from 22% to 20.5%, it eliminated so many deductions for kids’ sports and music lessons, for tax-free savings, income splitting and others that the net effect has been a substantial increase in the amount of tax the average family pays each year.

It’s also no coincidence that the amount of money ($3 billion) the middle-class tax cut cost Ottawa, is almost exactly the same amount ($3.2 billion) the Liberals hoped to raise by changing small business taxes this past summer.

Nor was it an accident that the Liberals’ attempts to sell their small biz tax were wrapped up in insinuations that small business owners are wealthy tax cheats.

It’s all part of Trudeau’s warped economic views.

http://edmontonsun.com/opinion/columnis ... 028bbf47a6

[The Green Barbarian]

Trudeau has no clue about the middle-class whatsoever. Will the sheep who continue to support the airhead in chief understand that?

[Veovis]

Trudeau has no clue about the middle-class whatsoever. Will the sheep who continue to support the airhead in chief understand that?

Sure he does. Middle class is where you make only 2 million from your trust fund a year, you can barely get by.

I know my father in law thought dear old JT was a great option and didn't believe us when we told him it would hurt us. HE was rather shocked when we explained how much less we have per year than before since you know....it was to help the middle class.

[Queen K]

Okay Okay, you three win.

[The Green Barbarian]

I know my father in law thought dear old JT was a great option and didn't believe us when we told him it would hurt us. HE was rather shocked when we explained how much less we have per year than before since you know....it was to help the middle class.

I was surprised how many people I know in their 40's and 50's voted for JT because "their kids said they should", and "because of his great social policies". Since when do you listen to Millennials for advice, on anything other than maybe what phone to buy, but definitely not on voting. All of those people that voted for JT and now are bewildered at how much more tax they are paying should apologize to everyone else in Canada. You are supposed to be adults. Vote like adults, not like people who are just waiting for you to die so they can quit their barista jobs.

That being said, I know a lot of people in their 70's who voted for Justin's evil dad and regretted that too, after being sucked in by his 1968 "just society" clap-trap.

[Queen K]

Oh no, that can't go unanswered.

I can't believe anyone would tell their parents how to vote.

And I won't apologize for racing home from Revelstoke, getting home by 8 pm and walking over to the voting station and voting for JT.

Nope.

There was no way we could tolerate Harper one more minute.

But no one dreamed of what JT would become either. I never did. And I'm an adult. I am as bewildered as anyone by the taxes, the giving away money, the lack of ethics which I thought every politician lacked anyways. But this is the way things have gone.

Some things have been right, apologizing to those who lost their jobs due to sexual orientation, but some things have been oh so wrong. Some things have been recified. Some things have been improved, but this increase in taxes?

I am stymied.

(Braces for the on-slaught) Ka-El, Omni, get in here.

[Ka-El]

I am stymied.

I’m disappointed too Queen. Reminds me of another smoke and mirror show right here in this province
where all sorts of new consumption taxes and users fees had to be implemented to pay for tax cuts.

[The Green Barbarian]

There was no way we could tolerate Harper one more minute.

Not sure who "we" is in your sentence, but I sure could tolerate him - for another 4 years if need be.

But no one dreamed of what JT would become either.

No one dreamed it? HA ha ha Come on now...Liberals are Liberals. JT has surrounded himself with losers like Gerald Butts. There was no way that this government was going to be anything but what it is now.

[Queen K]

But no one dreamed of what JT would become either. ]

No one dreamed it? HA ha ha Come on now...

I know, I know. A whole bunch of conservative naysayers fought tooth and nail in the political threads but Harper had to go.

[The Green Barbarian]

but Harper had to go.

sorry, you'll never convince me of that.

[Queen K]

Oh I know.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sarah-mill ... 67240.html

ETA: Link added to fend off those who would say, "you can't just say .... without supporting your claim..."

Taxes are going to choke us all off, federal, provincial and municipal.

[JagXKR]

Oh I know.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sarah-mill ... 67240.html

ETA: Link added to fend off those who would say, "you can't just say .... without supporting your claim..."

Taxes are going to choke us all off, federal, provincial and municipal.

Yeah because Sarah Miller is sooooo impartial. Left wing nut is the nicest thing I would ever say about this "activist".

[Queen K]

Jag, I had lots of choices to bring out, only this thread isn't about Harper. So I kept it down to one.

[casey60]

Its still the same old Liberal party. But now with sunny Boy at the helm.