Editor:
Re: Stick men, straw men debate the HST, May 18.
Whatever happened to the supposition of an independent, unbiased fourth estate?
I am constantly aggravated by Tom Fletcher’s BC Views columns, which always blatantly present his fervour for right-wing ideology.
Last week, Fletcher was spouting off on the HST and trying to straighten us all out on how it is good for small- to medium-sized businesses.
Look, Mr. Fletcher, I don’t give a sweet rat’s behind how good the HST is for any business, because what I care about is that I am now paying more taxes on goods and services that I never paid taxes on before, after a disingenuous Liberal government rammed this HST down my throat.
Just send me my ballot!
Forest McCready, Surrey
• • •
Once again, the BC Liberals’ local point man, columnist Tom Fletcher, has demonstrated his skill in diverting the public from the real issues in B.C. politics.
He accuses the NDP and Bill Vander Zalm of setting up straw men because they object to the government’s bias in spending $5 million on pushing their HST in the guise of an “information campaign,” while the anti-HST side gets only 1/20 of that amount.
Fletcher has the nerve to claim that the statement, “big business benefits most from the HST,” is false, when the government and its hand-picked ‘independent’ panel state that this is why they are introducing this unfair tax.
The BC Liberals have boasted that introducing the HST is equivalent to a 40 per cent tax cut on business investment. The professional straw-makers – like Fletcher, tax lawyer David Robertson and an army of highly paid economists – are trying to make this a debate about HST versus PST. As shills for big business – like the owners of PAN – they divert attention from the government’s underlying agenda.
If the HST is allowed in, the amount of tax drawn from the public will become so huge that there will no longer be any questions raised about dramatically reducing taxes on the friends of big business. Maybe they will give away a percentage point or two on the HST for a while, or at least a promise of doing so, to try to win the vote, but they will be able to raise the rate anytime they want, until it rises to 20 per cent as in many other countries with this VAT-style tax.
This is the only chance B.C. taxpayers have to block this tax by temporarily going back to the PST, so that we can have a fair-tax commission examine who pays and who gains from taxes and resource royalties.
As Adam Smith – the father of modern economics and professor of moral philosophy – was well aware, economics is always about politics. The rich and powerful in capitalist and ‘mixed’ economies have always successfully pushed a disproportionate share of taxes onto the general public, who, as individuals, lack the power to directly influence government.
Herb Spencer, Surrey
