Roundup: Overturning decades in a single budget?

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I am a bit bemused by some of the post-budget thinkpieces out there, but the one that took the cake for me over the weekend was CBC’s “Can Trudeau’s budget restore ‘generational fairness’? Economists say don’t bet on it.” I mean, of course not. It’s one budget trying to shift the inertia of decades of wealth accumulation by one particular generation that has given no cares at all for what this leaves the following generations in their wake, and now they’re getting the vapours that the next generations may not be as well-off as them, as though a lot of them haven’t pulled the ladder up behind them. Absolutely no self-awareness, and this includes those who are loudly proclaiming that the deficit and debt are “unfair” to future generations who have to pay it off, except that a) a federal budget is not a household budget and doesn’t operate that way; and b) under-investment and austerity leaves its own scars, and we are still paying for what happened in the nineties because a lot of those bills were merely delayed, and are have been coming due now (such as the under-investment in housing or in transforming healthcare delivery).

While this piece does interview Dr. Paul Kershaw from Generation Squeeze about the fact that admitting generational unfairness is a big first step for any government, what it didn’t talk about was the point he made during his interview on Power & Politics last week that the biggest structural spending increases in the budget are not any of the new spending programmes from the government, but it’s the increases on OAS and GIS, which dwarf any of the new spending, which is some pretty important context to have in the face of all of the handwringing. I’m not saying we should cut those, but we just need to be aware of what the spending priorities are, especially when discussing “generational fairness,” and why we should do something about it now, before the divisions and resentment get any worse (and most especially before parties prey on it without any plans to do anything about it, making the resentment even worse).

Ukraine Dispatch:

The fact that the American Congress finally approved the latest aid package for Ukraine is hoped to be in time enough to make a difference as Russians push toward Chasiv Yar, but there are concerns new weapons and ammunition could take weeks to arrive. Ukrainians made long-range drone strikes against a fuel depot and three power substations within Russia, as well as damaging a Russian rescue ship in occupied Crimea. In Kharkiv, some people are evacuating as Russian forces appear to be targeting the city as part of an upcoming offensive, but others remain in their places.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1782121755756097914

Good reads:

  • Ottawa is hosting global negotiations this week around reducing plastic pollution.
  • Chrystia Freeland is “extremely optimistic” that premiers will choose to cooperate with the measures in the budget.
  • The AI investment in the budget included $50 million for those whose jobs may be impacted (which may be fewer considering most AI is proving to be useless junk).
  • Here’s a look at how the government invited financial TikTok and YouTube influencers to the budget lock-up and access to ministers as part of their outreach.
  • Here is more discussion about the underfunding of Indigenous healing lodges withing correctional services.
  • Kevin Carmichael reflects further on the budget, and Chrystia Freeland’s task in selling it, particularly those capital gains tax changes.
  • Althia Raj hears from some Liberals who are concerned that the budget is going to make Poilievre’s job easier (though he may not change much about it).

Odds and Ends:

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