Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. Obviously I do not have the statistics that the member has before him. However, I am sure that there is a plausible explanation. I am glad that he used the American example because it lets me remind people that this whole agenda of the Reform Party is not new. It was started by Ronald Reagan. Basic Reaganomics said that what it was going to do is reduce taxes, stimulate demand and get rid of the deficit.
The results are, and the member can and look just as easily as I can, as the member suggested to me, that the U.S. went to a deficit of $1 trillion in that same period of time, almost bankrupting that country. Why is that?
Under Reaganomics they did stimulate demand at that time. The stimulation went to foreign imports. The bottom line is that they went out and bought Japanese cars. There were no more jobs created and the U.S. deficit went through the ceiling and they are still paying for it.
Do not tell me that there is a simple solution, that if we put some dollars into people's pockets somehow that will solve all of our unemployment problems. It will not.