It's hard to get excited about Thursday's federal budget. All signs point to an "austerity" budget, even though that approach has failed so spectacularly wherever it has been tried. Austerity is one of those zombie ideas that cannot be killed, roaming rampantly across the pages and screens of the mainstream media. The 2012 federal budget already took a big step down the path of austerity with major public sector cuts, largely focused on direct federal program spending with cuts around 7 per cent (transfers to provinces and individuals, a large part of the federal budget, have largely been spared). About 19,000 federal public service jobs were cut in the 2012 budget, bringing the total to over 35,000 going back to previous rounds of cuts.

The current government's economic policies, being rolled out in a series of omnibus bills and 'administrative changes,' come at a high price to women. These policies do not create jobs in industries where women work; these policies increase the tax burden on working women while decreasing their access to pension and income supports; they continue to undermine basic equality rights; and they do so in a manner that allows for little public debate or scrutiny.