XPost: bc.politics, van.general, vic.general   
   From: NøCøns@our.House   
      
   Opinion - The Daily News -  Wednesday, June 15, 2011   
      
      
   HST forces 'little guys' to bail out B.C. business   
      
   I, too, was at the HST forum at Vancouver Island University and agree with   
   Anne Judson's   
   assessment of it and share her frustration.   
   The biggest disappointment, to me, was that only about 100 citizens were   
   interested enough to   
   attend. Sad.   
      
   Second were chartered accountant Woody Hayes and professor Kevin Milligan   
   representing the Smart   
   Tax Alliance.   
      
   Both stressed their credentials ( "believe us, we're smarter than you") and   
   that they were   
   'facts and figures guys,' not there to address the politics of the tax. How do   
   you separate a   
   new tax from the politics that spawned it?   
      
   Hayes opened by stating that his submission was totally based on the   
   governments promised cut   
   HST to 10% (by 2014) which he apparently considered 100% credible, good as   
   gold. What planet   
   does Hayes live on?   
      
   Given that grievously false premise everything he said from then on was a   
   complete waste of my   
   time. A struggling government floating a promise about a 'good' coming three   
   years hence if we'd   
   only believe and trust in themtoday? Mr. Hayes, Ihavea soon-to-be-built (trust   
   me) bridge, I'm   
   sure you'd be interested in buying stock in.   
      
   Reminds me of the time Jim Flaherty similarly promised, "We will not tax   
   Income Trusts."   
      
   HST is really simple. It's like the bailouts of the mega banks and auto   
   industry recently. You,   
   little guy, are being asked to pay for either the inefficiency, the greed, or   
   the corruption --   
   or parts of all three -- of business, big and small, the friends of the   
   provincial liberals and   
   their philosophy.   
      
   We get the government and the politics we ask for and deserve.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)