It's Just Money

It's only money that someone else generates and the government wastes.

That's all:

The Senate today will pass into law the last of a flurry of spending bills that drive the federal debt to a trillion dollars. One Senator noted bills received scant scrutiny: “A $44 billion supply bill whipped through here in forty-six seconds.”

And just like the veterans, people are asking for far too much money than what the wasteful government is prepared to give out:

The President of the organization Markus Haerle told the agriculture committee earlier this week that a collapse in prices caused by the coronavirus means that many grain farmers have no chance of making money this year.

Haerle, himself a farmer, told MPs that the pandemic has created “risks that are bigger and more current than I have ever experienced in my farming career.” 

“We are at a point that we cannot even break even,” he said.

**

Arbitrary rules under the $71.3 billion Canada Emergency Response Benefit program discourage people from working, Opposition leader Andrew Scheer said yesterday. Conservatives proposed a descending scale of benefits instead of an all-or-nothing regulation that disqualifies applicants who earn more than $1,000 a month: “Workers are penalized for picking up shifts.”

**

The former clerk of the Privy Council is anticipating the federal public service will shrink in the post-COVID-19 era.

(Sidebar: I can't see how that is a bad thing.)