Roundup: Balanced budgets are magic

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Balanced budgets became word of the day on the campaign – Harper warning of permanent deficits if either opposition party gets in, Mulcair promising a balanced budget in 2016-17, and Trudeau hedging by not promising it immediately, given he doesn’t know the real state of the country’s books and we have some global economic turbulence going on. And then things started getting bizarre, with fiscal hawks praising NDP restraint (with no idea how they plan to achieve balance), and the Liberals attacking the NDP as promising more austerity to achieve said balance at a time of recession. And yes, the NDP’s new “star candidate” of the former finance minister of Saskatchewan said they would cut things, but some of the clues the party has dropped – things like “corporate tax giveaways” – are small change, and they even included the Senate on their list of things to cut, which makes me laugh uproariously because a) abolition will never happen, b) you’re not going to cut the Senate’s budget without either starting a war between the two chambers or starving them of the resources necessary to study and pass the legislation the Commons wants passed, and c) any savings they think they’re going to book from Senate abolition would be eaten up and then some with court challenges of flawed bills and Royal Commissions for policy work the Senate did at a cost-effective manner. But keep dreaming. I tackled the subject of party spending promises in my column here, but in the meantime, here are some economists smarter than I, who are similarly doubtful about these balanced budget pledges, for very good reason.

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/636170339878174720

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/636355620640133120

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/636355876203429888

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/636357120372379648

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/636357255332536320

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/636357563399938048

On the campaign:

Good reads:

  • It was the last day of the Duffy trial before it goes on break until November, thanks to one witness’ illness. (Reevely and O’Malley’s liveblog recap here).
  • Here’s how the Duffy drama is playing out in Cavendish, PEI.
  • Here’s a look at the tricky balance it can be running for re-election as the incumbent Speaker of the House.
  • Here’s a look at the giant flags that are the backdrops at political campaign stops.
  • CBC has a video looking at which demographics are doing better and which are doing worse than nine years ago. (Spoiler: Singletons, you lose again).
  • Here’s a decent election explainer on coalitions.
  • Adam Dodek notes that the creation of an in-house legal counsel in the PMO (à la Ben Perrin) diminishes the role of the Attorney General.

Odds and ends:

BuzzFeed asks about certain mysterious Conservative candidates who have made themselves scarce.

I think we have our first Nazi-eruption of the campaign…