Mr. Speaker, I would hardly be quoting the United States as a fine example of budget planning. Look at its deficit and rising debt. Look at how much Americans are paying in interest alone. This money is not going into providing health care. The Americans have a system with 40 million people with no health coverage and most of them are women and children. Is that the sample the member wants to put in front of this House and in front of Canadians as what we should be striving for? Thanks, but no thanks.
I spoke about seniors. Every senior understands the importance of saving for a rainy day, and that may be an old fashioned expression. If the government plans exactly what it thinks it will spend and receive, if revenues do not meet the expenses and if there is a sudden crises, such as the Persian Gulf war or the tsunami with which we want to help, we cannot afford it without going into debt.
If we budgeted the way the member opposite would want us to do, then we would be back where we were when we were in opposition, between 1988 and 1993, listening to repeated budget promises about getting out of the deficit and balancing the books. Instead the debt kept going up, the interest payments kept going up and services for Canadians kept dropping year by year.
I would rather err on the side of caution and pay off a bit of debt at the end of the year. I think most seniors and most Canadians want to see us pay down that debt. They know that means we save money in interest every year. This is money that we can spend on the environment, on seniors, on health care, on pensions and on many things that Canadians value.
