Madam Speaker, I have to call the member opposite on something. He mentioned again the collaboration between the NDP and the Liberals on this budget and he referred to the auto workers. His finance critic today got up in the House of Commons, referred to that collaboration and referred to Mr. Buzz Hargrove and the auto workers.
He asked the Liberals how low they could go. Shame on the Conservatives who would denigrate and call low labour unionism in this country. Labour unions built this country throughout the 20th century. Shame on them. If that is their view of Canadian society reflected by their finance critic, and the hon. member has just referred to that now, that is an excellent political relationship and it will continue to serve Canadians well. I know the members opposite have trouble with big numbers. They do not like the fact that we have a trillion dollar economy. Maybe they cannot understand it.
Amidst all of the good news, the great financial record of this economy, and I know he has heard all of this before, there has not been a deficit for eight years. We have been reducing taxes for five years and for eight years we have been reducing payroll taxes on EI. It is down from $3.05 to $1.95. We have paid over $50 billion on the debt. The national debt is now under $500 billion and less than 50% of the GDP.
What else is there out there that he could possibly find to criticize about the economic management of this country and why is he not supporting both these bills. Let us get our budget passed. Why does he not?