From that bastard elf Flaherty: Coal for our stockings!

Coal in our stockings! Dirty, ugly and symbolic - Jim Flaherty has given us a dose of coal to suckle this season.

Now Flaherty could have waited until after Christmas to give us the new fiscal up-yours update, but NO! This month's figures were released at 3pm EST the day before Xmas eve! November's Fiscal Monitor statement was released on the 27th. True October's was on the 24th; but September's was on the 26th. What a difference a day makes! Talk about wanting to bury a story!

As MSNBC's Rachel Maddow observed in a different context last night, the tried and true "dumping" of bad news by government's on Friday's is well-founded. Hoping their news will get 'lost' in the end of week news-cycle; all government's 'dump' news on Friday's. But to do it a day before Christmas? Jesus, that's like boot-fucking Santa to death after he merrily slides down your chimney during his annual B&E.

Travesty!

Well Flaherty and Harper knew exactly what they were doing this time. They figured they would drop the coal in our stockings and they hoped we wouldn't notice. Thankfully, some have:

CBC - The federal government posted a $603-million deficit in October as tax revenues fell, according to figures released by the Finance Department on Tuesday.

Globe & Mail Report on Business, on our federal government's rapidly deteriorating fiscal position. [- - ->] The federal government is already starting to bleed red ink, ending the year with a report that showed three consecutive monthly deficits. And it is facing the increasing likelihood that it will post an annual deficit this fiscal year, even before a stimulus package that could be as large as $20-billion a year.

Bloomberg- The world’s eighth-largest economy is sputtering

Timely news indeed! Merry-e'ffn-Xmas!

Turns out October was the THIRD MONTH IN A ROW that whiz-bang economist Stephen Harper's government had posted a deficit! Does anyone remember their speechifying during the election? Does anyone remember Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee's "no deficit" mantra? Does anyone remember that in October some economic forecasters were predicting Canada was facing a 10 billion dollar deficit in 2009-2010 because OUR Conservative masters were failing "to stitch a 'looming fiscal hole'"?

Stephen Harper = Trained economist my frozen Winnipeg ass!

He and Jim are nothing but knowing liars. Anybody reading the Department of Finance "Fiscal Monitors" since last April could see where we were headed. Now a day removed from Christmas the truth is finally told: October's election had nothing to do with a "mandate" - it was all about hiding the truth. To make matters worse, the latest monthly financial statement suggests that the slide towards a deficit this fiscal year was due to a rapid run-up in government spending, not a fall in revenues. Again, trained economist my ass!

"Don't worry," Flaherty now says, the deficit will be only "temporary"! Well we certainly hope so, you walking, talking, breathing piece of Harper scat. But why believe him?

Flaherty the coal giver might as well channel Martin Luther King's immortal words and tell us:

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind."

Well, Flaherty, some of us do mind. So when you get yourself back to that mountaintop - do us all a favour: JUMP! We'll take it from here.