Madam Speaker, I was wondering how long it would take before somebody would raise the tax point issue. The point is that the discretionary cash has remained constant in a variety of areas, so the tax points really do not adjust to the full measure which the member has suggested.
I would like to address a more important part of this issue, and that has to do with the balanced budget. The hon. member, in an almost sanctimonious tone of voice, suggested that the Liberals balanced the budget, thereby licking the deficit, and what a wonderful job they have done. It is pretty easy to balance the budget, simply by increasing taxes. That is not hard to do, and the Liberals have done that.
There have been some 37 tax increases since the Liberals took office. If governments keep raising taxes they are ultimately going to get to the point where they will have a balanced budget, and the Liberals have done exactly that. But who balanced the budget? The taxpayer; not the good spending of the government.
Let us not forget that the Liberals have paid nothing down on the debt, or if they have it was a minuscule amount. About $42 billion is taken out of the treasury each year to pay the interest on the mammoth debt. Think of what could be restored to health care if we did not have to pay that tremendous service charge. And if there should be a shift in the interest rates, imagine what would happen with $580 million with an increase of 1% in the interest rates. That is a little better than $5 billion. Look at what that would do.
This is not idle talk. We need to do this through the reallocation of resources that we have. We do not want to throw more and more money at these things. That is what is happening. We are increasing the money where departments have shown that they are not totally responsible. We want to put it into health care which is where the people of Canada want it and where it is needed.