Madam Speaker, I know the opposition is on a great theme here. I presume they cannot get too many ideas in their heads at one time as they keep repeating the same phraseology which is basically pay more, get less. There are two aspects of this, paying and getting. In other words they believe that one simply pays for services and that is what one gets.
When they came to the House years ago they were concerned about the debt. What they have said during the last two days is that we should forget about the debt, forget about the obligation to pay the debt. They are happy to leave it for another generation of Canadians so let us just forget about it. We want to get every dollar into this that we put into it. It is services for every dollar that we put into it.
People watching this debate know if they have a mortgage on their house that some of that money and hopefully a lot of it every month is going to make principal payments on their debt. These payments meet their obligations. Therefore their children will not have to live in that house and pay the mortgage which the parents have enjoyed. Those members are showing total irresponsibility by ignoring that aspect.
The member also talked about small business. Does he realize that Canada taxes small businesses at the lowest rate of the G-7 countries? I guess he is not very happy to know this as well.
One of the other members mentioned the CPP and called it a tax even though we all know it is a pension. The federal government does not have its hands in it one way or the other. It is money contributed by employers and employees for their pensions. Once again those members would be happy to run away from, shirk their responsibilities, transfer that liability on to another generation and walk off with the gravy.
Do those members think they could get beyond the two little things in their minds, that is pay more, get less? Could they deal with some of the substantive problems in the country?