Press release – August 10, 2010
ChristianGovernance submits federal budget recommendations to Finance Committee
RUSSELL, ON – ChristianGovernance today submitted its report to the federal Finance Committee with our recommendations for the 2011 budget. The committee invited Canadians to submit their recommendations for the budget as part of the pre-budget consultation process. The deadline for submissions is this Friday, August 13th.
ChristianGovernance could only touch on the kind of fiscal reforms we want to see in the maximum 5-page document. In terms of tax relief, we are calling on the federal government to move to a flat tax or, more preferably, to a sales tax to replace taxes on income, investments and savings. “You get less of behaviour that is taxed, so taxation should be levied against consumption, not against income, investment or saving,” we noted. The same point is made in the new book, “The Canadian Century,” published by economists Brian Lee Crowley, Jason Clemens and Neil Veldhuis.
We also want to see charitable gifts treated more favourably, especially in relation to political donations.
ChristianGovernance exists to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the abiding relevance of God’s law throughout Canada. We train Christians to understand their beliefs and values and to effectively communicate them in the political realm as well as other areas of Canada’s public square. ChristianGovernance contributes public policy proposals to governments throughout Canada that are based on a Judeo-Christian belief system.
One of our leading priorities in any governmental reform is a reduction in the size and scope of the civil government; the abandonment of socialism. “Socialism is a worldview which identifies the state as the central organizing principle for human society, if not for reality itself: the state is the socialist’s god,” we noted in our submission. “Total taxation above 10% is a sign of oppression, ” we added. “This is evidence of a state that has taken on totalitarian characteristics rather than a civil magistracy that exists to serve the people. (First Samuel, Chapter 8, the Bible).” This needs to change.
In terms of spending cuts, we focused our recommendations on continuing the funding cuts to political activist groups and lobbying activity. We explained to the Members of the Committee: “As a Christian organization, we uphold the principles of equality before the law and equal opportunity to access civil government. Equal opportunity means that politicians have no business putting roadblocks in the way of access. Beyond that, however, Canadians as free and responsible people have to create their own opportunities to access their political representatives. There is no obligation on the government to pro-actively set up programs and spend taxpayer dollars to help put all groups on an equal footing before the government.”
We also expressed our support for the abolition of the Indian Act, which is also something that Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo’s is demanding. We want to see a fresh approach to how Canadian governments engage with Aboriginal Canadians, one that is based on equality and human dignity, not on dependency, subsidization, guilt and billions of taxpayer dollars.
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For more information, contact ChristianGovernance at [email protected] or 613-496-0091.
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Recommendations for the federal government’s Budget 2011
ChristianGovernance exists to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the abiding relevance of God’s law throughout Canada, with special emphasis on the political realm. We train Christians to understand their beliefs and values and to effectively communicate them in the political realm as well as other areas of Canada’s public square. ChristianGovernance is also a think-tank, contributing public policy proposals to governments throughout Canada that are based on a Judeo-Christian belief system.
Summary
We are highlighting a few recommendations that ChristianGovernance wants the federal government to implement in Budget 2011. First we summarize several of the fundamental principles that dictate our organization’s approach to economic issues. Then we outline several of our priorities, prior to discussing our recommendations.
Key principles
Several principles dictate the approach ChristianGovernance takes to economic issues including the following:
• Total taxation above 10% is a sign of oppression. This is evidence of a state that has taken on totalitarian characteristics rather than a civil magistracy that exists to serve the people. (First Samuel, Chapter 8, the Bible)
• The graduated income tax model reflects a socialist vision and is, therefore, incompatible with a vision for liberty and justice.
• You get more of behaviour that is subsidized, and the state has no business subsidizing deviant behaviour; much of this would be eliminated if the civil magistrate ended redistributive taxation, stopped subsidizing all behaviour and ended its attempts at social engineering (cf. Proverbs 11:10-11).
• You get less of behaviour that is taxed, so taxation should be levied against consumption, not against income, investment or saving.
Key priorities
ChristianGovernance’s recommendations for Budget 2011 reflect the priorities of our organization, which are as follows:
• Socialism is a worldview which identifies the state as the central organizing principle for human society, if not for reality itself: the state is the socialist’s god. Cradle-to-grave social welfare is consistent with this idea of a messianic state. ChristianGovernance advocates economic policy that will limit the state’s ability to pursue such messianic aspirations (cf. Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
• ChristianGovernance wants substantially lower taxation levels, with taxes on income, investments and capital completely eliminated.
• The civil government must not conspire with business interests to increase the cost of entry for new competitors. This is done through regulations dressed up to appear legitimate by being billed as health, safety or environmental measures. Such monopolistic behaviour should be illegal whether implemented by private interests or by state parties.
• The institutionalization and bureaucratization of charity and compassion is dehumanizing. All funding strategies that fuel the institutionalization of charity and humanitarianism should be eliminated. This means all taxpayer funded aid programs and expressions of redistributive taxation (cf. Acts 4:32-37).
Recommendations
Tax relief
Taxation above 10 percent symbolizes a people living under an oppressive regime. The Fraser Institute recently reported that Tax Freedom Day for Canadians this year fell on June 5th. That is three days later than last year. Using the 10 percent threshold, Tax Freedom Day should arrive for all Canadians prior to the second week of February – and that should reflect the total tax burden of all three levels of civil government.
Flat tax. Broadly speaking, ChristianGovernance would like to see, at minimum, a flat tax instituted in place of today’s Marx-inspired graduated tax regime.
Sales tax. Economists differ on whether it makes a difference, once one has implemented a flat tax, whether people are taxed on income or on spending. We are Biblical realists when it comes to understanding human nature and we believe the evidence which indicates that you get more of the behaviour you reward or subsidize and less of the behaviour you punish or tax. We, therefore, also want to see tax on income, investment and savings eliminated, and replaced by a sales tax.
In the book, “The Canadian Century: Moving Out of America’s Shadow,” published by the new think-tank, The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, co-authors and economists Brian Lee Crowley, Jason Clemens and Neil Veldhuis make the same point, urging greater dependence on sales taxes over against taxes on income, investment and savings.
Income splitting. In terms of incremental measures to reduce the tax burden on Canadians, ChristianGovernance wants to see an income splitting provision for families so that single-income families aren’t penalized in relation to multiple-income families with the same total family income. Of course, a flat tax would also address this problem.
Charitable and political donations. We could support the charitable tax reform that Cardus proposed for last year’s stimulus package: that the federal government increase charitable tax credits from 29% to 42%. Instead of making it part of a stimulus package, make it a permanent reform. We would go further, and argue that charitable giving should be treated better than political donations in the tax code. The attitude of idolatry towards the civil government – and cradle-to-grave dependency on a messianic state – is one of the most debilitating characteristics of too many Canadians. Much must be done to combat this problem, which merits God’s judgment on our nation. One way for the government to demonstrate its own opposition to being such an object of worship would be to reduce the value of political donations in relation to charitable giving in the tax code.
Spending cuts
Many millions of dollars could and should be cut from federal government spending. Whole departments could and should be cut. We will highlight several areas where we would like to see an end to federal government spending of taxpayer dollars.
Political funding. The government should immediately end the provision whereby taxpayers are forced to fund political parties they don’t support. The Conservative government attempted to do this once before. We have no comment on the motivation of the government for making that proposal when they did so. It is, however, a legitimate proposal that needs to be implemented immediately to eliminate a transparently anti-democratic policy Canadian law.
Political activist groups. We reject the cynical view of civil society articulated mostly by those on the left of the political spectrum, that it is hard to be heard by the civil government and, therefore, taxpayer funded programs need to be set up to give a political voice to the voiceless. Conveniently, this argument has been used to fund almost exclusively left-wing organizations/voices over the past few decades.
As a Christian organization, we uphold the principles of equality before the law and equal opportunity to access civil government. Equal opportunity means that politicians have no business putting roadblocks in the way of access. Beyond that, however, Canadians as free and responsible people have to create their own opportunities to access their political representatives. There is no obligation on the government to pro-actively set up programs and spend taxpayer dollars to help put all groups on an equal footing before the government.
In reality, this is not what happens anyway. Instead, the process of accessing political power is politicized, and favoured groups somehow receive more funds and assistance than voices opposed by those in power.
We support the Conservative government’s past funding cuts to lobby groups and to the activist budgets of other organizations. We urge the government – in the spirit of the Christian and Canadian values of equality before the law and equal access to our civil government – to continue cutting the funding to all NGOs (non-governmental organizations), starting with those involved in political, lobbying and activist activity.
If an organization cannot survive on the voluntary donations of its supporters, then it lacks the necessary support to be a credible organization in Canadian civil society, and it should not be propped up by governments and taxpayer dollars. This also goes for culture funding, and we note the government’s expression of regret this month over the taxpayer funded production “Homegrown” in Toronto, which glorifies terrorism.
Aboriginal Affairs. We support Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo’s call for the abolition of the Indian Act within two to five years. We know that his recommendation is more nuanced than that. Every honest Canadian, however, knows that there is no positive correlation between the billions of dollars spent on Aboriginal policy and outcomes on the ground for the health and well-being of Aboriginal people.
Aboriginal Canadians need what all Canadians need: freedom and equality. Instead, irresponsible and guilt-ridden Canadian politicians and policy-makers have ground them down, dehumanizing them for decades and generations with handouts, affirmative action, special treatment and bureaucratic and institutional programs.
These strategies, in and of themselves, are destructive and dehumanizing. When they are exploited by dishonest and cunning individuals, including among the Aboriginal people themselves, then predictable problems are made even worse.
The Canadian government should begin dramatically scaling back Aboriginal funding with the 2011 budget, working with Shawn Atleo and other cooperative parties to restructure the federal government’s relationship with our Aboriginal people. This restructuring should move towards abolishing all government to government funding streams, and eliminating every scheme that funds some form of affirmative action, every program that punishes merit and innovation, every mechanism that subsidizes deviance.
There are a growing number of examples of visionary and entrepreneurial Aboriginal leaders developing free market opportunities across Canada for productive labour and wealth creation. Such opportunities will continue to appear with Canada’s resource-based opportunities, the development of the North and other opportunities made available in Canada’s increasingly diverse economy. The federal government must get out of the way of current and yet-to-be-discovered opportunities by ending its subsidization of unproductive, dehumanizing alternatives that slow people’s entry into productive activity and responsible lifestyle choices.
One can dress up all this subsidization of deviancy in the rhetoric of charity, but the history of the failure of this socialistic approach to helping human populations is plainly consistent and overwhelming when it comes to Canada’s Aboriginal people.
Much more could be said about the need to eliminate deficit spending, and to end corporate welfare, regional development programs and the religiously motivated environmentalist agenda (including the taxpayer subsidization of “green energy”), but for Budget 2011, the proposals we have outlined above will be sufficient.
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