I think we're being obviously disingenuous here. The Liberal tax cuts were contained in budget three in 2005, and Mr. McCallum, you know that. You guys had two budgets and an economic statement in 2005, and the last economic statement that came in November 2005 was certainly a deathbed repentance on the part of the Liberal government. As my colleague says, the proposals that were put in that budget were never passed into law. Although they were accepted--because it is the de facto practice of governments to accept proposals that are made in a budget as if they had been passed in law--in fact it was never done.
What we're doing right now is actually taking an existing legislated tax rate and reducing it. If you want to argue semantics, that's what's happening.
But what you also said is extremely true, and it's one thing I want all committee members to remember. It's exactly what you said: at the end of the day, all taxpayers care about is their overall tax burden. Under this budget, as you quite rightly pointed out, the Canadian tax burden is less. That's exactly what the minister had to say to us. When he sat here as a Minister of Finance of the Government of Canada, he said categorically, without hesitation, without qualification, that every taxpayer in this country is going to pay less because of this budget. You either question the minister, or you accept what the minister had to say.
At this point, obviously you are ignoring what the whole budget says. With the Canada employment credit, with the personal exemption, with the GST cut, with everything, every Canadian is going to pay less. You are absolutely right, Mr. McCallum, and therefore we're going to do what's right on this side of the table and give those hard-working Canadians the decrease they deserve. Get used to it.