The Real Deficit: What Have Gordon Campbell And Christy Clark Really Saddled Us With?

ThereIsNoBamboozlement
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The citizens of British Columbia know (or should know) that Christy Clark is a bald-faced liar when it comes to her repeated claims that the bond rating services have ratified her ridiculous fantasy island budget for the coming year.

And yet, apparently, a considerable number of British Columbia's citizens are now considering voting for her and hers.

The citizens of British Columbia also know (or should know) that Christy Clark has increased their 'direct' debt by 11 billion dollars over the last two years, which is more than anyone ever (and that would include a whole passel of Dave Barretts), over the same time frame.

And yet, apparently, a considerable number of British Columbia's citizens are now considering voting to continue Ms. Clark's (and Mr. Campbell's) most excellent griftopic adventure.

However, what the citizens of British Columbia are rarely, if ever, told is the total cost of that excellent adventure.

So....

If you go back and look at the costs of all the cronyism, all the boondoggles, and all of the grifts and give aways over the last 12 years, what is the real number that Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark have painted on our, our children, and our children's children's backs?

Well, Rafe Mair describes that number thusly in The Tyee:

"...I do not rely on politically-oriented think tanks for my information, rather noted independent economist Erik Andersen. If you add the $70 Billion in direct debt projected in Clark's latest Budget to secret "taxpayer obligations" relating to private power contracts and public-private partnership (P3) infrastructure deals, you get -- wait for it -- over $170 BILLION, that's with a "B".

By that measure, what is important to know about the debt is that in 2001, when the Liberals took over, every man, woman and child owed a shade over $8,000. Today we each owe $40,000 -- five times what we owed before this so-called business-oriented, fiscally careful bunch of cheats and hypocrites took over..."


And what, besides a few sports edifices, a convention center, an ice-bomb bridge and a condo-king highway have we gotten for that bill that we are going to be paying for, like, forever?

Have we diversified our economy, or are we still pinning our hopes on being hewers of wood and carriers of frack water?

Have we dealt with childhood poverty?

Have we improved longterm care for the elderly?

Have we improved our public schools and made a post-secondary education more affordable for all?

Have we decreased the user-fee burden for average families (of course, this one is laughable on its face)?

Have we made it possible for kids to live anywhere near the neighbourhoods that they grew up in?

Or.

Have we done exactly the opposite for the vast majority of the citizenry that, at least according to last week's polls, now appear willing to vote for four more years of Griftopia?

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Now.

Given the real cost of Griftopia so far...

Why is no one talking about what the real number will be in 2017 if the BC Liberals are allowed to continue with their cronyism, penchant for boondogglement, and their giving away of/selling off of public assets, unchecked, for another four years?




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Meanwhile, if you are looking for the historical specifics of all havoc that Gordon and Christina's Golden Era Army has wreaked upon us during the big Grift, Laila has updated her Top 100 (which is now actually 146)...


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