Mr. Speaker, I cannot help but be somewhat concerned when I hear the kind of talk I have just heard, things like oodles of money and scads of money.
That is exactly the kind of thinking that got us into a situation where we were dependent upon foreign borrowing to pay for our entire health care system and our entire public pension system just seven years ago. That is exactly the kind of thinking that would have destroyed those systems had something like the Asian crisis happened before we started getting our deficit under control.
I take issue with the member's statement that the government has not done what needs to be done for society. He has to acknowledge that once there was a surplus budget the first thing the government did was put money back into health care, back into post-secondary education, back into all those things to create a strong and healthy society.
These two budgets have increased spending in those areas by 25%. Health care and education are the foundations of a strong society. Those areas of spending are now higher in actual dollars than when we took office. I would like the hon. member to respond to that.