It's obvious that a politician has fallen right off the edge of the Canadian political spectrum when [url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/a-very-scary-pm-i-dont-beli...'re too right wing for Jeffrey Simpson[/url]
You know, there's two schools in economics on this. One is that there are some good taxes and the other is that no taxes are good taxes. I'm in the latter category. I don't believe that any taxes are good taxes.- Stephen Harper, July 10
This assertion, from an interview the Prime Minister gave The Globe and Mail after the G8 summit in Italy, is one of the most stunning, revealing and, frankly, ignorant statements ever made by a prime minister, let alone one who keeps purporting to be an economist, despite doing so many things that economists deplore.
Think about it: The prime minister of a country is saying, "I don't believe that any taxes are good taxes."
There is no "school," to use Stephen Harper's word, anywhere in economics that says "no taxes are good taxes." Not even Milton Friedman and the Chicago school think that. Nor do Mr. Harper's former mentors at the University of Calgary.
They, like right-wing politicians, might think taxes are too high, maybe way too high. They might think the private sector can do lots of things better than the public sector. They might believe taxes should be lower. But anyone who says "no taxes are good taxes" and "I don't believe that any taxes are good taxes" is wrong economically, and very, very scary socially and politically.