8.15.2010

Tea Party Nation, eh!

You know why Canada doesn't have Tea Party protests?

Because they already have type of sensible government policies that Tea Partiers are trying to implement here!

Relative to the U.S., Canada has lower taxes, lower debt per capita, lower debt to GDP, and a sound banking system:
- Lower corporate income tax rates. The U.S. statutory federal corporate income tax rate is 35 per cent, a number that is more likely to go up than down given the country's debt burden. Canada's is 18 per cent, down from 19 per cent in 2009. Scheduled tax cuts will bring Canada's rate to 16.5 per cent in 2011 and to 15 per cent in 2012, giving Canada the lowest statutory tax rate in the G7.

- Competitive personal income tax rates. It may comes as surprise for Americans to learn that Canada's federal personal income tax rates are lower than those in the U.S. The U.S. rate on income between $34,000 US and $82,400, US for example is 25 per cent. In Canada the rate on income between $40,970 and $81,941 is 22 per cent. On income from $171,850 US to $373,650 US the U.S. rate is 33 per cent. Canada's rate reaches a maximum of 29 per cent for all income over $127,021.

Of course, most of Canada's provinces and territories impose personal income tax as well, but so too do many U.S. states and some municipalities. It is true that Canada obtains slightly more personal tax revenue per capita than the U.S. does -$5,800 US vs. $4,700 US -but this difference is easily offset by the cost of health care that Americans incur privately and Canadians cover through taxation. It's worth noting that the U.S. has inheritance taxes and Canada does not.

- Lower capital gains tax rates. Canadians pay tax on 50 per cent of their capital gains at their marginal rate. On a gain of $1,000, for instance, only $500 would be subject to tax. At a combined federal-provincial rate of, say, 35 per cent, the tax payable would be $175. Americans pay tax on the net total of capital gains. More importantly, the reduced rates introduced in 2003 by then president George W. Bush, initially due to expire in 2008 and extended until 2011, will finally sunset, raising the discounted rate of 15 per cent to 28 per cent. So, on that same $1,000 capital gain, an American investor would pay $280.

- Canada can maintain low tax rates: Because Canada is in better fiscal shape than the U.S., Ottawa can keep taxes low while Washington will have little choice but to raise them. The U.S. national debt is $13.6 trillion US, or $42,942 US per capita. Canada's is $534.7 billion, or $15,715 per capita.

The ratio of debt to gross domestic product stands at about 93 per cent in the U.S., and the U.S. Treasury Department sees it rising to 102 per cent when debt is expected to reach $19.2 trillion US in 2015. Canada debt-to-GDP ratio is 33 per cent.

Government spending as a percentage of GDP has declined in Canada since hitting a peak of 53 per cent in 1992 and recently slipped below 40 per cent. In the U.S., it has turned sharply higher, rising to 42.7 per cent in 2009 from 39 per cent in 2008. It is expected to reach 45 per cent next year.

The White House has forecast the U.S. deficit for 2010 to be $1.6 trillion US or 10.6. per cent of gross domestic product, the highest level since the Second World War. Canada's deficit is seen at $49.2 billion, or 3.7 per cent of GDP. Canada should be able to manage its debt and still lower taxes. The U.S. clearly cannot.

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- Canada's banking system is sound. [They didn't have the same problems with corruption and incompetence in the Canadian equivalents of the Federal Reserve, Congress, the SEC, the FDIC, the Treasury Department, etc.]

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- Regulation is similarly stable and streamlined in other sectors of the Canadian economy, resulting in less uncertainty, better planning and a lower cost of capital.

Yes, Canada has nationalized health care, but the full cost of it is included in that lower spending/GDP and those lower taxes (Obama explicitly rejected health care cost savings from areas like trial lawyers and Big Pharma, where Canada has much lower costs). And Canadians have the freedom to seek private care across the border. Where will we go for medical freedom if ObamaCare is allowed to stand?

Canada just passed the U.S. on the Index of Economic Freedom, and I'd expect the U.S. decline to continue as long as the Obama regime is in power.

The Liberator Today also links a recent WSJ article with a similar view.

3 comments:

canuckboywonder said...

We certainly are not "Tea Party Nation" up here. Even in right wing Oilberta, we just elected a gay muslim mayor in its largest city.

For the record, we are the Brits you dumped 234 years ago. For those of you a little slow on the take... your original Tea Party was to get rid of us. Good job.

Now stop electing Republicans who keep f**king up the world economy with their shitty unregulated policies and useless ideological wars. You need to suck it up and clean up the mess you made.

With Love,

Canada

W.C. Varones said...

I see you've fallen for the mainstream media tea party bashing.

Don't believe the hype. Come to a tea party instead.

And congratulations on your very tea party government policies and the new Toronto tea party mayor!

Anonymous said...

Canada does appear to be relatively well managed compared to most other countries, I will not disagree, although I think this is more a reflection of how badly managed everybody else is.

What we need now in Canada is less government and more personal accountability. I think the modern Tea Party movement is a good idea, we need some of that in Canada.

Having said that, I do have serious concerns for Canada:

1) out of control immigration, legal and illegal, is 250,000 people/year, a bit much for a 33M people country. I am not only concerned about the numbers, but also about the quality of many of the migrants (just go to ER in Toronto at the weekend and you will see what I mean).

Yes, the skilled migrants are usually good additions (but represent less than 30% of immigrants); also, unfortunately, too many foreign engineers and doctors are driving taxis - more than anything because a country only needs so many doctors/engineers and competition is tight, even for natives that speak the language well and understand the way of doing business.
The real problem I see with immigration is that too many 'skilled migrants' will bring grannie, grandad, uncle Joe, cousin Mo and auntie B, all of which require medical care for a variety of diseases (TB, hep B, etc.)... and guess who paid for their medical care here in Canada... certainly not the skilled migrant that has been here less than five years.

2) People's lack of responsibility: if you think Obama & Co. are lefties, check out the NDP (e.g. Jack Layton), or some (mercifully, not all) Liberal Party politicians (Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario); they want Canadians to be sheeple (i.e. depend on welfare and defer most decission making to them)..

Oh, and one more thing: I am an immigrant in Canada that came here via the skilled migrant program; I would be ashamed to bring sick groups of relatives to milk the health system paid for by others (and my relatives would disown me if I did that); no, I did not come from the US.

Happy Super Tuesday!