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Wealthy need to be taxed

Why are conservative governments like the B.C. Liberals so infatuated with the HST?

To the Editor:

Why are conservative governments like the B.C. Liberals so infatuated with the HST? Bill Bennett has been throwing numbers around in paid statements in local papers every week since June 23, and then in his letter to the Creston Valley Advance supporting the HST with more numbers, he said the Nelson-Creston area “is unrepresented by a government MLA.” His next sentence begins, “The government of B.C., of which I am a member…” That’s an interesting concept.

If the B.C. Liberals do not consider Michelle Mungall of any other NDP MLA to be a member of the government of B.C. while Bill Bennett emphasizes that he is a member, then just how is Bill trying to define provincial government for us? What does he think the non-Liberals sitting in the legislative assembly are? And what will he think he is when he is sitting with the official opposition?

Let’s return to the first question: Why is the HST so important? One of Shakespeare’s characters said, “Methinks the man doth protest too much.” And it seem to me the rhetoric, numbers and amendments being made in order to sell the HST are also too much and must be in the range of the $1.5 billion they say we will lose going back to the PST and GST. The loss could be regained by taxing the wealthy and corporations.

After all, by now, almost everyone must know there is no trickle-down effect, just an increasing gap and B.C. debt. I can’t believe the rebates and subsidies to single parents and other low-income earners come anywhere near the increase in consumer tax being paid by families with two substantial incomes when the HST is at the intended 12 per cent or even the promised 10 per cent on July 1, 2014, which is a bird in the bush, not in the hand, especially considering the economic woes forecast for the near future.

Not taxing the wealthy is one cause of Greece’s economic woes and the conservative politicians in the U.S.A. are willing to create a global economic meltdown rather than tax the wealthy, and here in B.C., the HST is our way of going down the same path. Is that why it is so important to Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals?

If the wage slaves pay all the taxes, especially consumer taxes, and the conservative governments work to cut services, wages and benefits, who will buy all the toys with planned obsolescence that need to be sold to keep the economy strong? Credit cards have their limits.

Peter Ross

Canyon