Trudeau's middle-class mantra shows he doesn't get it

[Gone_Fishin]

Trudeau's middle-class mantra shows he doesn't get it


BY MARK BONOKOSKI, POSTMEDIA NETWORK
FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 06, 2017 04:48 PM EDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 06, 2017 04:59 PM EDT


Thousands of times over hundreds of campaign stops, townhalls and press conferences, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s one-and-only mantra was his focus on bettering the middle class.

The “middle class” this; the “middle class” that.

He, like no prime minister before him, was going to help the middle class grow and prosper, and he sold it better than any snake-oil salesman and pill pusher anyone could ever envision.

It is his biggest political lie thus far, and the most flagrant of his multitude of broken promises in the two years since being elected.

He just doesn’t get it.

Even as he faces the biggest backlash since being elected over his plan to essentially tax small business out of business, with his own MPs giving him grief and expressing re-election angst at their caucus meeting in Kelowna, he is blind to the most obvious fact of all.

Small business is the middle class. And, while Trudeau would like to put reality to the illusion that too many of them are rich and playing tax loopholes to get richer, it’s still an illusion.

When doctors are pulling up stakes in small town Canada because of increased costs, static fee structures and therefore the inability to make ends meet in rural communities, then they should not be on a prime minister’s target list.

Yet doctors, farmers and accountants were the among the small businesses Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau held up as examples of greedy tax cheats in order to sell a new tax scheme that will take down the mom and pop operations, and tar with the same brush all the other small businesses that are already suffering a 50% failure rate.

Success is something to be rewarded, but success in the eyes of the Trudeau Liberals is just an opportunity to conjure a new tax and get some new money.

And God knows the Liberals need new money, because they have been spending it like it grows on trees, and saddling us with a debt and deficit that will not see a balanced budget until most of us are dead.

Small business — defined by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) as having fewer than 100 employees (meaning it could be two, or three, and this is often the case) — represent nearly 70% of Canada’s private labour force.

One third of all self-employed Canadians are women, a number that is now pushing a million, and yet our feminist prime minister has these risk takers in his sights as among the greedy and the tax-dodging.

snip

Small business contributes about 30% of our country’s GDP, with the average worker toiling a minimum of 50 hours a week to stay afloat compared to a public-sector employee who won’t work a minute past their 37-hour commitment to the taxpayers who front their wages, benefits and oft-mentioned gold-plated pension plans.

Small business does not have taxpayer-funded pension plans. Most have no pension plans at all, other than working to their graves in order to keep paying the bills and their ever-increasing taxes.

According to the CRA, there are 1.1 million employer businesses in Canada. Of that number, 98% are small business.

And Trudeau/Morneau wonder why they are now getting grief over their plans to tax them even more?

Trudeau and Morneau say it’s all about creating a “level playing field.”

That doesn’t sound progressive. That doesn’t sound like rewarding the financial and personal risks taken by small business to make it in an increasingly tough world.

That sounds, instead, like 19th-century socialism.


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[Poindexter]

So is it that "he doesn't get it" or that it's "the biggest political lie thus far"? Can't have it both ways but that's what that article would have you believe.

I'm self employed and taxes aren't what put people like myself out of business, it's lack of sales. If sales are great I make more and pay more taxes and conversely, if sales are slow, I make less revenue and pay less in taxes. If my sales don't cover expenses, I don't pay any tax but still go out of business. I'm not thrilled with paying taxes but it would be a lie to blame the success or failure of my corporation on them.

It's the same principle when it comes to hiring new employees and buying additional equipment. I don't do either with charity in mind and only hire an employee or buy an asset if they cover their cost by either increased efficiencies or sales. Taxes aren't the issue and those that tell you they are doomed to start with because they are the ones that "don't get it".

[seewood]

Spot on Poindexter, same position here, self employed and taxes are not the reason I make it or don't, least of my worries actually. Been self employed since 1991.

[Gone_Fishin]

So is it that "he doesn't get it" or that it's "the biggest political lie thus far"? Can't have it both ways but that's what that article would have you believe.

I'm self employed and taxes aren't what put people like myself out of business, it's lack of sales. If sales are great I make more and pay more taxes and conversely, if sales are slow, I make less revenue and pay less in taxes. If my sales don't cover expenses, I don't pay any tax but still go out of business. I'm not thrilled with paying taxes but it would be a lie to blame the success or failure of my corporation on them.

It's the same principle when it comes to hiring new employees and buying additional equipment. I don't do either with charity in mind and only hire an employee or buy an asset if they cover their cost by either increased efficiencies or sales. Taxes aren't the issue and those that tell you they are doomed to start with because they are the ones that "don't get it".

When your taxes go to 93% of your profits under Trudeau's plan, you might change your mind and decide that cheering for nice hair isn't such a good idea after all.

[Poindexter]

My accountant would love it if I blamed Trudeau's hair for paying 93% because I'd be looking for someone else to prepare my taxes.

I'm not saying our federal government should be frivolous with our money but that's a separate issue. What he's doing with changes in the tax code is spreading the burden in a way that's a little more fair.

My wife for example is a nurse and pays a higher rate than I do. She has no write offs so her paycheck takes the full brunt with little if anything coming back at tax time. What she does professionally is equal, if not more important to our economy than what I do, so why should she have to pick up more of the tab than me?

Look, I'm not going to lie and say I'm happy about paying more in taxes but I understand the logic behind the decision to share the burden more fairly.

Edit: Saw some articles from back in August saying rates could be as high as 93% but appeared to be a pretty specific situation and made assumptions as to what will actually be rolled out. Still yet to determine if this is the case.

[ninetyninepct]

Doctors need offices, staff and pay their own small business costs, farmers have to invest millions to operate their farm, often with hired help, a mechanic has to buy thousands of dollars worth of tools.

How much did Trudeau invest in the skate board business? ZERO. How much did he invest in the daycare? ZERO. Has he ever invested in his own future? He has lived off other's money for most of his life. The skateboard was small business, the daycare was small business. Why does he want to destroy the only two "jobs" he claims to have had?

Hire a few more auditors and apply the current tax laws. They will pay for themselves.

Trudeau is offensive.