Harper’s Budgetary Bullshit

 

Post #152- Harper’s Budgetary Bullshit

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
LIES and LIES and MORE DAMNED LIES

An article by Ralph Goodale in The Huffington Post

A government's claims of economic competence must surely depend upon a sound record in certain crucial areas -- such as economic growth, debt reduction, balanced budgets and management of the tax burden.

On all four counts, the Harper regime is a serious disappointment.

Mr. Harper has the worst economic growth record since R.B Bennett. During Bennett's years, the Canadian economy barely grew at all, averaging just 0.16 per cent. Mackenzie-King's average was 5.54 per cent. St. Laurent maintained growth at 5.28 per cent.

Diefenbaker got 3.67 per cent. Pearson achieved 5.97 per cent. Trudeau's average was 3.92 per cent. For Mulroney, it was 2.33 per cent. Chrétien came in at 3.39 per cent. Paul Martin recorded 3.20 per cent.

Under Harper, Canadian growth has averaged a paltry 1.54 per cent and his trend is negative. Economic growth in each year since 2010 has been worse than the year before. Another reflection of these sorry results is stock market values which have stalled for eight year -- today they're only fractionally above where they were when the Harper years began in 2006.

With respect to debt reduction, Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio is also about where it was in 2006 (around 34 per cent).

Mr. Harper has no progress to report. Indeed, his government is adding $169-billion in new Conservative debt -- driving the accumulated total to an all-time record high at $627-billion. His earlier target for significantly reducing his debt-ratio has been postponed for eight years, until 2021.

On the issue of balanced budgets, the Harper record is laughable.

He inherited a decade of surpluses from his Liberal predecessors and surfed on that momentum for a couple of years, while over-spending by three-times the rate of inflation and undermining safeguards in the budget-making process designed to protect against adverse events. By 2008, Mr. Harper had squandered Canada's hard-earned fiscal security, creating a deficit again BEFORE the recession that arrived later that year.

The last six Harper budgets have all been deficits, continuing a long-standing Conservative tradition of red-ink. Before Mr. Harper, the last Conservative to balance a budget for Canada was Robert Borden in 1912 -- more than 100 years ago. He too inherited a surplus from a Liberal predecessor (Wilfrid Laurier) and blew it in just one year.

As for taxes, that's where Mr. Harper brags the most. But check reality!

While claiming they never raise taxes, the Harper Conservatives have in fact increased the net tax burden on Canadians in each of their last four budgets. It happens in dozens of nefarious ways which they hope you won't notice -- like taxing parking fees at hospitals and dinging Credit Unions for an extra $75-million in income tax.

One of their biggest cash-grabs has been constantly escalating Employment Insurance payroll taxes. Starting in 2011, EI premiums have been going up every year by more than $600 million. So to date, Mr. Harper has raked in an additional $3.6 billion. He says he won't force EI rates up any further, but neither will he roll them back to where they were before he imposed these job-killing Conservative payroll tax hikes.

Two other Conservative tax increases are also netting Mr. Harper big revenues.

He has hoisted a broad range of tariff-taxes on imported consumer goods -- everything from tricycles to cosmetic wigs for cancer patients -- which will extract some $333 million more per year from the buyers of such products. And small business owners are going to be paying Mr. Harper some $550 million more, thanks to new Conservative taxes imposed on them.

At the bottom line, it's Canada's middle-class that bears the biggest burden from the incompetence and grinding mediocrity that characterize Mr. Harper's economic record.

<><><><><><><><><><>

I hope you liked this post
Blaine Barrett

TheSmeeGoanGuy

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ralph-goodale/harper-government-taxes_b_3975855.html

 

The Unsung Hero of Medical Marijuana

A Tribute to a Cannabis Hero

What One Man Has Done For All of Us

 Dr. Raphael Mechoulam 

 

As it now stands the CMA (Canadian Medical Association) would rather the following interview be kept secret?

Why?

To acknowledge this man’s brilliant and positive findings re Cannabis; is to expose

their President: Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti;

to be an

IGNORANT ASSHOLE IN TOTAL DENIAL OF THE TRUTH

He has publicly declared that Cannabis has no validated curative powers and has advised all his members to refuse to help any applicant for Medical Marijuana.

Cannabis not only cures Cancer but has multiple benefits in the treatment of manifold illnesses and disabilities! Unfortunately for all members of the misnamed AMC (Association of Medical Corporations) this would result in a terrible business disruption and loss of profits.

On his website http://www.drlou.ca/ , Dr. Lou, as he prefers to be called, shows himself as an arrogant, egotistical, narcissist only interested in promoting himself as “God’s gift to Humanity”. If you should doubt this statement go to his website and be inflicted by an onslaught of self praising adjectives that demonstrate the fact. The man has no humility at all,

Dr. Lou made his “Denial of Benefit” statement following this CNN interview of Dr. Raphael Mechoulam by Dr. Sanjay Gupta in early March. It is in effect a justification and support of Dr. Gupta’s change of opinion as declared in his earlier CNN documentary Weed.

Dr. Lou had to be aware of both of these positive reports and his “Denial of Benefit” is a total crock of shit! He should be removed from any position or role in deciding the future of Medical Marijuana, but for the time being we are stuck with the arsehole.

Read on and see what he is missing with his blinders on:

Medical Marijuana and 'The Entourage Effect'

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta,

CNN chief medical correspondent

Tue March 11, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Scientist Raphael Mechoulam has made studying marijuana his life's work
• There are more than 480 natural components in the cannabis plant
• "The entourage effect" means those components may work best together

 In the early 1960s, a young postdoctoral student stumbled onto something that puzzled him.

After reading the literature on cannabis, he was surprised to see that while the active compound in morphine had been isolated from opium poppies 100 years before and cocaine isolated from coca leaves around the same time, the active component of marijuana was still unknown.

This simple observation launched his life's work.

That young Israeli researcher, Raphael Mechoulam, is now a heavily decorated scientist, recently nominated for the prestigious Rothschild Prize. More than 50 years ago, however, he had trouble starting his scientific journey.

For starters, he needed cannabis to study and didn't know how to obtain it. Eventually, he obtained his research supply from friends in the police department. The young scientist was in a hurry, and didn't want to wait to cut through the red tape required by Israel's Health Ministry.

"Yes, I broke the law," he told me when I met with him in Tel Aviv last year, "but I apologized and explained what I was trying to do."

It's a good thing the Israeli government didn't stall his progress, because Mechoulam was moving at breakneck speed.

By 1963, he determined the structure of cannabidiol (CBD), an important component of marijuana. A year later, he became the first person to isolate delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Over the ensuing decades, Mechoulam and his team continued to isolate numerous compounds from the cannabis plant.

Their work also went a long way toward illuminating how the drug works in the brain. When Mechoulam's team identified the first known endogenous cannabinoid, a chemical actually made by the brain itself, he named it "anandamide." In the Sanskrit language, ananda means "supreme bliss," which gives us some insight into what Mechoulam thinks of cannabinoids overall.

It was halfway through our long afternoon discussion that Mechoulam, now 83, pulled out a paper he had written in 1999, describing something known as "the entourage effect."

Think of it like this: There are more than 480 natural components found within the cannabis plant, of which 66 have been classified as "cannabinoids." Those are chemicals unique to the plant, including delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiols. There are, however, many more, including:

-- Cannabigerols (CBG);

-- Cannabichromenes (CBC);

-- other Cannabidiols (CBD);

-- other Tetrahydrocannabinols (THC);

-- Cannabinol (CBN) and cannabinodiol (CBDL);

-- other cannabinoids (such as cannabicyclol (CBL), cannabielsoin (CBE), cannabitriol (CBT) and other miscellaneous types).

Other constituents of the cannabis plant are: nitrogenous compounds (27 known), amino acids (18), proteins (3), glycoproteins (6), enzymes (2), sugars and related compounds (34), hydrocarbons (50), simple alcohols (7), aldehydes (13), ketones (13), simple acids (21), fatty acids (22), simple esters (12), lactones (1), steroids (11), terpenes (120), non-cannabinoid phenols (25), flavonoids (21), vitamins (1), pigments (2), and other elements (9).

Here is the important point. Mechoulam, along with many others, said he believes all these components of the cannabis plant likely exert some therapeutic effect, more than any single compound alone.

While science has not yet shown the exact role or mechanism for all these various compounds, evidence is mounting that these compounds work better together than in isolation: That is the "entourage effect."

Take the case of Marinol, which is pure, synthetic THC. When the drug became available in the mid-1980s, scientists thought it would have the same effect as the whole cannabis plant. But it soon became clear that most patients preferred using the whole plant to taking Marinol.

Researchers began to realize that other components, such as CBD, might have a larger role than previously realized.

To better understand the concept of the entourage effect, I traveled to the secret labs of GW Pharmaceuticals, outside London. In developing Sativex, a cannabis-based drug to treat multiple sclerosis, the company's chairman, Dr. Geoffrey Guy, told me the company ran into some of the same obstacles that Marinol faced.

More than a decade of experiments revealed that a whole plant extract, bred to contain roughly the same amounts of THC and CBD in addition to the other components in the plant, was more effective in reducing the pain and spasms of MS than a medication made of a single compound.

It could be that multiple individual compounds play a role, or it could be due to their interaction in the body; it could also be combination of both, Guy said.

Now, maybe this all sounds obvious. After all, eating real fruits, vegetables and other plants provides better nutrition than just taking vitamin pills with one nutrient or mineral in each. Science is showing us that we can likely say the same about cannabis.

As we move forward with creating medicines, like Charlotte's Web, for the patients who can benefit from cannabis -- this is an important point to keep in mind.

Unlike other drugs that may work well as single compounds, synthesized in a lab, cannabis may offer its most profound benefit as a whole plant, if we let the entourage effect flower, as Mechoulam suggested more than a decade ago.

<><><><><><><><><><>

That, I think, establishes the fact that Dr. Lou is practicing Politics not Medicine. I thought Stephen Harper was a scum sucking bottom feeder but this guy is even lower and feeding off Harper’s crap.

I’ve gotta quit here!

I’m feeling NAUSEOUS just thinking about it!

Yuk!

Blaine Barrett

TheSmeeGoanGuy

Ratfink Rona's Resume

Who Is This Bitch Rona Ambrose

She’s Damned Near Ruined Our Home

Rona Ambrose Took an Axe

Gave All Labour 40 Whacks

When She Saw What She Had Done

She Gave Health Canada 41

I never really knew a lot about Ms. Ambrose until she got involved with Medical Marijuana and set out to destroy it. I was vaguely familiar with her squelching two major strikes by Labour she didn’t like. I recently ran across this little Wikipedia summary of her backtrail: all the dead bodies she’s left behind and all the nasty insulting statements she’s made. I found this to be a new awakening as to just how good she is at enforcing her will. She’s a perfect imitation of Wonder Woman carrying her Dominatrix Gear on the hunt for her next victim. I hope you all become as disgusted as I am and helpm in obstructing her in any way possible:

Ronalee "Rona" Ambrose, PC, MP

(Born March 15, 1969) is a Canadian politician and a Member of Parliament since 2004. She serves as the Minister of Health, and Vice-Chair of the Treasury Board Cabinet committee.
In the previous Parliament, she was Canada's Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Minister of Western Economic Diversification and President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. She has been a Conservative member of the Canadian House of Commons from Edmonton–Spruce Grove since 2004. She is a former communication consultant and public policy consultant for the Alberta government. When the Conservative party was in opposition, she served as its Intergovernmental Affairs critic.

Early life and education

Ambrose was born in Valleyview, Alberta and grew up both in Brazil and in Parkland County, Alberta. In addition to English, she also speaks fluent Portuguese and Spanish. Ambrose has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria and a Master of Arts degree in political science from the University of Alberta.

Early political career

Ambrose was first elected as a Member of Parliament in the 2004 federal election.

On February 16, 2005, she made headlines after making a remark in Parliament directed at Liberal Social Development Minister Ken Dryden saying "working women want to make their own choices, we don't need old white guys telling us what to do," in reference to the Liberal national child care plan.

Ambrose calls herself a libertarian and is a fan of Ayn Rand novels such as Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.^[1] She was a member of the Trilateral Commission, as reported in Vancouver's Georgia Straight, August 24, 2006.

Ambrose was temporarily the Conservative critic for International Trade, after the defection of Belinda Stronach to the Liberal Party.

Cabinet minister

In 2006, Ambrose successfully defended her seat in Edmonton–Spruce Grove with 66.8% of the vote in the riding. She was then appointed Environment Minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. She was shuffled out of that position on January 4, 2007, and appointed Minister of Western Economic Diversification, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.

On October 30, 2008, Rona Ambrose was shuffled to the Department of Labour.^[2]

On January 19, 2010, Ambrose was appointed as the new Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada.

On July 13, 2013, she was appointed Minister of Health.

Minister of the Environment

On April 7, 2006, Ambrose announced that Canada had no chance of meeting its targets under the Kyoto Protocol and would have to set more "realistic" goals for cutting greenhouse gases. "My departmental officials and the department officials from natural resources have indicated that it is impossible, impossible for Canada to reach its Kyoto target. And let me be clear. I have been engaging with our international counterparts over the past month, and we are not the only country that is finding itself in this situation." said Ambrose.^[3] On June 6, 2006, in a speech she clarified with the following: "So we became the first and only country to publicly state that we know we will not reach our Kyoto targets. This was met by controversy. But we will not be the last. However, no one that follows this debate in any serious manner was surprised to find out that after years of no action on climate change, meeting the onerous targets negotiated under the Liberals was not a reality."

On April 13, 2006, Ambrose was accused of stopping an Environment Canada scientist, Mark Tushingham, from speaking publicly about his own novel. The science fiction novel, entitled Hotter than Hell, posits an alternate future in which global warming has made many parts of the world too hot to live in and has prompted a war between Canada and the U.S. over water resources. Tushingham was scheduled to speak in Ottawa at his book launch about his book and his beliefs underpinning it. However, he claimed an order from Ambrose's office stopped him. In response, Ambrose's spokesperson claimed that the speech was billed as coming from an Environment Canada scientist, who would appear to be speaking in an official capacity, even though his book is a work of fiction.

On May 11, 2006, before the House of Commons, she said "We would have to pull every truck and car off the street, shut down every train and ground every plane to reach the Kyoto target negotiated by the Liberals."^[5]

She continued her May 11 speech: "Or we could shut all the lights off in Canada tomorrow -- but that still wouldn’t be enough -- to reach our Kyoto target we’d have to shut off all the lights AND shut down the entire agriculture industry.

"Or instead we could shut down every individual Canadian household, not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR times over to meet the Kyoto target the Liberals negotiated for Canada.

"Or, we could do what the Liberals thought was the answer faced with the realization that the target they negotiated meant shutting down Canada’s economy -- spend the money overseas buying international credits -- the Liberals had set aside up to $600 per Canadian household to be sent overseas in order to help reach the Kyoto target they negotiated for Canada."

Ambrose was criticized by Bill Graham, Leader of the Opposition, on May 15, 2006 for chairing a UN conference on climate change despite admitting that Canada will not meet its Kyoto Protocol targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ambrose, who was leading the May 15 to 26 meetings in Bonn, Germany, repeated her claim that Canada's targets under Kyoto are "unachievable." During Question Period that day, Graham asked the prime minister if he saw the "irony" in having someone who "despises" Kyoto to chair the meeting in Germany. At the beginning of the UN conference, Ambrose stated: "I have been very honest with Canadians after the release of our greenhouse gas inventories that we will have great difficulty in meeting those targets. We believe they are unachievable.".

Ambrose told a parliamentary committee that Canada had paid its debts under the Kyoto Protocol only to have an Environment Canada official point out that the bill was still unpaid.

Continued opposition discontent over Ambrose's conduct led the NDP to table a motion in the Commons environmental committee calling for her resignation. The vote, which was held on June 21, 2006, saw the Liberals side with the Conservatives, thus defeating the motion. Had the motion passed, a vote would then have been held in the House of Commons, and, because this was deemed to be a matter of confidence, could possibly have triggered an election.

In August 2006 she stated that although the population of spotted owls in British Columbia is only 17, she does not feel they are threatened and therefore they do not merit any special protection (The Northern Spotted Owl is listed as Threatened or Endangered throughout its range in US and Canada).

On October 19, 2006, Ambrose introduced a Clean Air Act that purported to reduce the level of greenhouse emissions starting in 2020, cutting them to about half of the 2003 levels by 2050. She also introduced other regulations to industries and vehicles as well as a possible cooperation between the federal government and the provinces to create a system that would report air emissions. In an interview with the media, Ambrose denied that the Conservative government had abandoned the Kyoto Protocol despite its previous opposition to it. However, industries will have until 2010 before they are expected to reduce emissions, and the government will not have final (and voluntary) targets ready until 2020. Oil companies will have to reduce emissions on a per-barrel basis, reduction proportional to production basis.

Cabinet shuffles

News stories began to appear in late 2006 of a possible Cabinet shuffle that included shifting Ambrose from her environment portfolio. On January 4, 2007, Ambrose moved from environment to become Minister of Western Economic Diversification, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs as well as President of the Queen's Privy Council. The Environment portfolio went to John Baird, the former President of the Treasury Board. On January 19, 2010, Ambrose succeeded Christian Paradis and was named the Minister of Public Works and Government Services. On April 9, 2010 she was also named Minister responsible for the Status of Women after Helena Guergis was dismissed from Cabinet. On July 15, 2013, Ambrose was made Minister of Health and retained the title of Minister of Western Economic Diversification.

Minister responsible for the Status of Women

On September 26, 2012, Ambrose was in the news again having voted in favour of Motion 312, a motion by Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth that would have directed a Commons committee to revisit the section of the Criminal Code defining at what point human life begins. Viewing the motion as an attempt to re-open debate on abortion laws, Canadian pro-choice groups and Commons opposition parties considered her vote inconsistent with her ministerial role and prompted a call for her resignation. The motion was eventually voted down. Ambrose responded to her critics, stating her concern of discrimination against girls that is made possible by sex-selection abortion. Pro-Life groups praised Ambrose for supporting the Motion.

Honours

Ambrose has the prenomial "the Honourable" and the postnomial "PC" for life by virtue of being made a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on February 6, 2006.
In 2008, Ambrose was #17 on the Western Standard's "Liberty 100" top Canadian "pro-freedom activists, journalists, think-tankers and partisans."^[

Blaine Barrett

TheSmeeGoanGuy