Friday, July 5, 2013

Government Debt = Our Debt


Debt.  Debt.  Debt.

In British Columbia, the DAILY interest payment is $6.84 million.
Interest only!
Per day.

Debt continues to grow at a rate of $215 per second!
$12,854 per minute, $771,233 per hour.
$18.5 million per day.


British Columbia's debt by the year 2016 was forecasted by our provincial government to increase to $69.7 billion.

That's the provincial government.

The Federal government of Canada?
The fed spends $31 billion per year just paying the annual interest on the debt.

The Canadian Taxpayers' Association stated:  "Between 1997 and 2008 the federal government was running surplus budgets and paying down our debt. Every cent and more of that $105 billion paid-off during the decade has now been re-borrowed and spent. Canada’s federal debt has risen from $457 billion in 2008 to over $600 billion."

Un-bloody-believable, huh?

And our cities and municipalities aren't doing taxpayers any favors either. 
No debt transparency exists in the District of Coldstream or City of Vernon.
Good luck looking for a line "Total Debt" on their requisite annual Financial Statement.
You won't find it.

It brings to mind a response from Coldstream's Councillor Kiss--after the District was berated by residents several years ago for their burgeoning debt--"we can be $19 million in debt."   (Coldstream was $3 million in debt at that time).
$3 million then for a population of approximately 10,000 people.
But $19 million debt is allowed by provincial legislation.
How nice!
That legislation was written by the same government that wrote the provincial legislation are the ones who are paying almost $7 million in interest payments.

The District of Coldstream's 2012 Annual Report is a 72-page document-- the Financial section begins on page 30 -- good luck finding what Coldstream's total debt is.

And, lest a reader thinks this article is sour grapes for the NDP losing the May provincial election, let me assure you it is not.
Vehemently assure you it is not!

Back to debt.

Trying to access British Columbia's "debt clock", as suggested by today's Morning Star on the topic, resulted in this prompt:

Secure Connection Failed
An error occurred during a connection to www.debtclock.ca..
SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length.
(Error code: ssl_error_rx_record_too_long)  The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
  Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem. Alternatively, use the command found in the help menu to report this broken site.


How convenient.

Probably crashed from 4.4 million B.C. residents trying to access the clock.

Yet everybody--and I mean everybody--hears government agencies warning consumers to lower their household/family debtload. 
What a crock!

Still a fervent believer in what levels of government are telling you?
Place this book on your Must Read list:  Anatomy of a Con Job, by John T. Wolfe.
 
A quotation to pique interest...er....ah...learning:
“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.” —George Orwell


"I'm uncharacteristically speechless," sighs Kia.



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