Madam Speaker, in the member's answer to his own colleague about the operating budget of the government, he asked that we not look at the interest costs but just look at the operating budget and how the cuts are there.
I acknowledge the cuts in government operations. They are lower. There are some cuts there. However, the member is not recognizing that the interest cost to service the debt is going up faster or as fast as the cuts that are being made. That is why I will repeat the objective is to get to a zero deficit, not to one of $25 billion.
In the member's household budget, whether he has a mortgage now or if he ever had a mortgage, are the interest costs to service the mortgage on his home not a part of his expenses? Does he have a budget which includes his income and his expenses for food and clothing, but the expenses for shelter do not count? Does he keep that aside saying that he can borrow money indefinitely on that? No. A business cannot do it either. The debt servicing costs of a corporation are also included in its costs.
The hon. member should put the interest costs and the operating costs to government together as one. Do not make the same mistakes previous finance ministers have made. Separate the two and try to offer sophistic arguments. Get to the bottom of the overall spending and lower the overall spending so that we get to zero. Does that not make sense?