Budget 97 :: essays research papers

Budget 97Finance Minister Paul Martin unveiled the Liberal governments 1997budget recently. As most economic and political experts predicted there were truly few surprises, if any. This was a cautious and predicable budget that wasevery bit political as it was economical. With the Liberal government set tocall an election in slow May or early June the Party was very reluctant to rockthe boat further. This is what they have done in the 1997 budget and thesubsequent reactions to the tender budget from both the business and politicalcommunities.In this no-surprises, pre-election budget, Martin said deficit slip of paperis coming to an end and that Canadians, particularly the unemployed, allow soonreap the rewards of 40 months of morose financial management. With the Federaldeficit dropping over the last few years, the Liberals feel that they canbalance the budget in the next two years. This is strategic because it willallow the government to halt their foreign borrowing to financ e the deficit.This greatly helps the credibility of Canada and puts the countrys destiny backinto domestic palms. With this said, Martin announced no raw(a) tax increases,although the raise in the Pension Plan could be considered a hidden tax increase.Martin announced no new spending cuts in this budget although cuts made inprevious budgets are set to slash 3 billion more dollars this year. There wassome extra spending sprinkled into various areas. For starters, a new taxbenefit will be created in co-operation with the provinces, costing the Federalgovernment $600 billion. This program is attempting to help the poor and thiscan be good economically because poor people tend to spend everything theyhave, and they almost always spend it domestically. This program will beintroduced in two the stages, the first of which will begin this July with a$195 million supplement. Instead of benefits being capped at $500 per family,the maximum working income supplement benefit will be increase t o $605 for thefirst child, $405 for the second child and $330 for each additional child. Otherexpenditures will be include tax credits for students, $300 million in newhealth care funding and tax credits for medical expenses of the disabled.Depending on how you look at it, Martin is either spending more or just cuttingless.There have been many contrary viewpoints that economic and politicalleaders have thrown out and most are unsure. It appears that Martin has createda no-brainer budget that doesnt do anything to hurt but does not make Canadiansfeel better either. Martin was expected to put money into job creation in order