National Public Finance Guarantee: Fill & Download for Free

The press normally tries to discredit Labour with portraying at inept with the public finances. Building up debt, borrowing and so on. Unable to balance the books.However, on record, this is not really true. Since Labour lost power in 2010, the Conservative (and coalition) government has doubled the national debt.They sometimes excuse this oversight by blaming it all on the previous Labouradministration. But that excuse is getting a little bit long in the tooth. Look at the graph. It’s now 2017 and it’s still going up.Economies balance the books by guaranteeing that the spending by government is matched by taxes.The tories managed to..Not increase taxes to cover their spending. And tried to cut taxes wherever possible, driving up the debt.Managed to prevent economic growth, by implementing a half-hearted austerity programme. Which didn’t do much to reduce costs, but squeezed all the growth out of the economy.We have to contrast this by what the US Economy did. The Obama administration inherited the financial crisis just like Mr. Osborne, but unlike Osborne, Obama increased public spending. They called this a stimulus package. Which sounds vaguely erotic, but the US Economy did indeed stand to attention.It created economic growth, and the US economy fared far better than the UK.Germany, France, the US, Canada all improved far more rapidly because they didn’t adopt this insane policy of economic punishment, when we needed it the least.Conservatives often use the metaphor of houshold spending, to simplify economics. If you are in trouble, you “tighten your belt”. etc. But countries are not like households. They are engines of growth, and cutting power when the plane is heading for the ground is a bad idea.The trouble with conservatism is they eventually can’t afford to borrow any more money to give those tax cuts to their millionaire friends.

Medicare in Canada is a government-funded universal health insurance program established by legislation passed in 1957, 1966 and 1984, but the concept of a publicly funded, comprehensive, accessible medical services insurance plan has a much longer and more complex history.In 1949, a Gallup poll survey asked Canadians if they supported a government-funded health plan. 80 per cent said “yes,” and only 16 per cent said “no.”Saskatchewan, which was the home base of “agrarian socialism,” had been governed since 1944 by the left leaning Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) led by T.C. (Tommy) Douglas. The initial innovation was a provincial system of universal hospital insurance, which was introduced in 1947.The first implementation of nationalized public health care at the federal level – came about with the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act (HIDS), by the federal Liberal majority government in 1957The hospital insurance plan was very popular and universal state medical insurance was virtually the only major issue in the Saskatchewan provincial election of 1960. The promise of state Medicare was so popular that the opposition parties dared not oppose it outright.The organized medical establishment mounted a propaganda campaign by the College of Physicians and Surgeons with the support of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), the American Medical Association (AMA), and other vested interests. The medical establishment took much of their advice from outsiders and adopted tactics which had proved successful in many similar campaigns in the United States. It was a complete disaster in Saskatchewan.The crudeness of the propaganda appears to have been based on the assumption that the Saskatchewan electorate was as naive as their American counterparts. The effectiveness of the anti-Medicare campaign can be judged by the 1960 election in which the CCF won 42 percent of the vote in a four-way race and 37 of the 54 seats in the legislature. The government took this as a mandate to proceed with a universal medical plan, so in 1962, Saskatchewan introduced the first government-controlled, universal, comprehensive single-payer medical insurance plan in North America.A doctors’ strike occurred in 1962. It divided the population into warring camps. Public opinion swung against the anti-Medicare lobby partly due to the work of the pro-Medicare committees with help from the Saskatchewan Farmers’ Union and the trade union movement, and partly because of a popular backlash against the excesses of the medical establishment.The Liberals narrowly defeated the NDP in the provincial election of 1964, but to win they had to promise to continue the medical care plan as it was. Henceforth no serious Saskatchewan politician could openly attack the principle of government-controlled universal Medicare.Much to the medical establishment’s surprise, Medicare spread rapidly from Saskatchewan to the national level. The Canadian Medical Association pressed the federal Conservative government to appoint a Royal Commission to examine the whole issue of the medical system, but the move backfired.The commission, chaired by Emmett Hall issued a report in 1964 that came out in favour of a comprehensive health insurance program to be jointly financed by the federal and provincial governments. It was the Saskatchewan plan on a national scale.The reaction to the Hall Report could be summed up as “all hell broke loose.” Emmett Hall, now elevated to the Supreme Court, threw himself into the debate in favour of public Medicare, an unprecedented move for a Supreme Court Justice and Chairman of a Royal Commission. Fierce struggles within both the national Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties forced their right wings into submission. The National Medical Care Insurance Act was passed in the House of Commons in 1966, by an overwhelming vote of 177 to 2.The starting date was July 1, 1968, and the Act provided that the federal government would pay half of Medicare costs in any province with insurance plans that met the criteria of being universal, publicly administered, portable and comprehensive. By 1971 all provinces had established plans which met the federal criteria.In 1984, the Canada Health Act was passed. which affirmed five principles:(a) public administration on a non-profit basis by a public authority;(b) comprehensiveness – provincial health plans must insure all services that are medically necessary;(c) universality – a guarantee that all residents in Canada must have access to public healthcare and insured services;(d) portability – residents must be covered while temporarily absent from their province of residence or from Canada; and(e) accessibility – insured persons must have reasonable and uniform access to insured health services.See: The Birth of MedicareSee: Medicare (Canada) - Wikipedia

Well, if I could only pass one (assuming it's not an omnibus bill) it would be for some form of basic or guaranteed annual income. I'd actually solicit input from all parties and actually consider that input too. I think this is where principled conservatives could really help, if they want to (and not just sabotage the bill). It would be a large bill and would require negotiation from the provinces, because I'd like this to re-organize the social safety net to improve it (not dismantle it). The new program would integrate MOST existing programs such as OAS, GIS, EI, RRSPs, TFSAs, RESPs, working tax credit, child tax credit, tax credits for education, welfare, federal transfers for health and social programs, and so on.If I went for an omnibus bill (and I probably would, rather than ask the genie for more wishes), I'd also tack on:national pharmacare (start with catastrophic and work from there)national dental (essential and limited preventative, no cosmetic)national short- and long-term disability insurance (integrated with guaranteed income)closing tax loopholes (subsidize profitable industries like oil? why?)end subsidies to profitable industries (e.g. oil and gas)restore and advance direct spending on public R&Drestore the long form censusemphasize public financing for elections and de-emphasize individual contributionsset limits on 3rd party election spending and ensure there's an enforcement mechanism for thatchange the house of commons to a preferential ballot (probably not possible without constitutional change, I'm way over my head here)organize a 1 or 2 year program of public service for 18-19 year olds (high school grads) which would provide training and work experience in first-responder activities, e.g. fire, police, EMT, some social work, emergency logistics, etc. I probably wouldn't make this compulsory, but there would be a big incentive for participating plus a big penalty for not participating. The point is to have a large amount of citizens trained and ready, and resistant to panic in the face of unexpected emergencies.create a carbon tax (rather than cap-n-trade or further regulations)restore funding to the CBCI'd also like to have provincial premier appoint senators for their provinces. To make a law I think would require a constitutional amendment, but if I were PM I could just ask a premier for their choice and appoint the chosen person myself.EDIT: more specifics on health ins stuff.