Mr. Speaker, I am most anxious to participate in the debate on the Liberal budget.
I must say at the outset that the Liberal budget can best be described as an example of sleight of hand at its finest. The budget is sprinkled full of little goodies, but it is simply an attempt to conceal the Liberals' real record. And what a record it is.
Unemployment and bankruptcies are at record levels. Taxes are at record levels. Funding for health care and education has been slashed to record lows. We are approaching a record national debt level of $600 billion, with debt servicing costs reaching a record $50 billion a year.
The Liberals like to congratulate themselves on lowering the deficit, but it was done on the backs of Canadian taxpayers, students trying to get an education and Canadians who have suffered under health care cutbacks. That is the record of this Liberal government.
Let us not forget how Liberal taxation policies have affected the pensions of seniors and will continue to affect the retirement plans of seniors.
The Liberals have brought in 36 new tax measures and raised tax revenues by a record $24 billion. The deficit has fallen by $33 billion since 1993 and, therefore, a full 92 per cent of the reduction in the deficit is a result of Liberal higher taxation revenues. That is nothing to be proud of. Anyone can pull that golden handle and wrench more dollars out of Canadian taxpayers. Even this Liberal government can do that.
The government has not reduced its spending significantly. It has not made government more efficient, as the Reform Party has cited. It has battled the deficit by squeezing Canadian taxpayers.
This is not the only thing Liberals are good at. They are good at cutting transfer payments in support of health care and education to achieve a reduction in the deficit. That is not what the Reform Party wants to do. Reformers want to give Canadians a tax break. We want to restore funding to education and health care. At the same time, we want to cut $15 billion from the operation of government. That is where the big blood is.
The Liberals have battled the deficit by squeezing Canadian taxpayers. That is the only thing they are good at, shaking the money tree known as the Canadian taxpayer. The taxpayer is the Liberals' magic cash register. When they need more money for bigger government, bigger bureaucracy, bigger payments and bigger programs they dip into their cash register, the pockets of hard working Canadians.
The average Canadian family has seen its disposable household income shrink by $3,000 under the Liberal government. Every reputable economist in the country will testify to that, but the Liberals are in denial. Canadian families will testify that they have $3,000 less to spend to put food on the table, to put clothes on their kids' backs, to pay their medicare premiums and to provide the necessities of life. What kind of a record is that?
Do we know who does not have to worry about getting a job when the Liberals are in power? Liberal party fundraisers, former candidates, former Liberal provincial leaders and past party presidents. They do not have to worry about what the government is doing because they are getting jobs, while 1.5 million Canadians who do not hold Liberal memberships are looking for jobs.
The government has appointed hundreds of party faithful to various boards, agencies and commissions; appointments which come with obscene paycheques and obscene perks. That is being done despite the fact that the Liberal red ink book talks about making appointments based on merit. It seems that the only merit which is required is the $10 for a Liberal membership.
Why am I even referring to this flawed Liberal election document? Nobody believes it any more, not even the Liberals. They have stopped quoting from it because they were caught so badly in the big GST lie. There are so many broken promises in it they do not even dare use it any more. It is too bad, I would love to see the Liberals bring that out when they go to the election that is coming soon. They can bring out that red book and talk about all the promises they have kept and we will talk about the promises they have not kept.
The Liberals red book has proved one thing only. It is not worth the paper it is written on. This red book will continue to give the Liberals headaches in the 1997 election as they twist, turn, flip and flop their policies when the policy winds change. And, Mr. Speaker, in case you did not know, Liberal philosophy and policy do change. They say "these are my policies, if you don't like them give me a little while and I'll come up with some new ones".
I would like to return to the chronic problem of the 1.5 million Canadians who are unemployed. The Liberals do not believe us when we say tax cuts create jobs. Maybe they will believe evidence from some non-partisan sources. The Cato Institute in Washington studied 10 tax cutting states and 10 tax hiking states between 1990 and 1995. These are figures that they will not want to listen to but, Mr. Speaker, I know you will want to hear this.
This study discovered that the tax cutting states created nearly two million net new jobs. The 10 tax hiking states created zero net new jobs. Furthermore, the economies of the tax cutting states grew 22 per cent faster than those of states which continued to raise taxes. Michigan was one of the states in that study that cut taxes-maybe the Liberals should know this-15 times since 1991 and brought the state back from economic ruin. Now it has an unemployment rate that is at its lowest since the 1960s.
In the Reform's fresh start program we argue that taxes kill jobs. We argue that tax relief creates jobs. Every single economic think tank in the country, perhaps in the world, knows and agrees that taxes kill jobs. Taxation kills jobs.
Yet this government has just imposed a $10 billion payroll tax on Canadian businesses and Canadian workers. That defies logic. When every economic think tank in the country agrees that taxes kill jobs except for the socialist economic think tanks that the Liberals call on from time to time for their policies, and the NDP as well. And every same thinking economic think tank knows and confirms that taxes kill jobs.
It is because of these taxation policies that we have 1.5 million people unemployed. It has killed the jobs and it has ripped the heart out of our social programs of which these Liberals are so proud. They have cut $7.5 billion from health care and education. No matter what little crumbs they through out in this budget, let us not forget that they are the ones who have cut the $7.5 billion from health care and education.
Reform Party policies in the fresh start program make sense to Canadians because they come from Canadians. We listen to Canadians, not like the Liberals who listen to their well-heeled back room advisers. This budget is smoke and mirrors. It is sleight
of hand at its finest. There is no way that our party and average Canadians will accept it.
