"Let us not indulge in fiscal fiction. Tax increases are inevitable. Deficit spending is deferred taxation. That deferral cannot go on. Our tax system has to produce greater revenues overall.
"The grotesque irony is that so long as we let government debt continue to grow, we reduce our ability to pay social programs. We reduce our ability to fund the education of our children, assistance for the jobless, and the relief of human suffering and human need in our society. The real opponents of social programs are those who refuse realistic discussion of deficit reduction; nobody needs it more than the disadvantaged.
"We are rich enough to afford the solutions to our debt problem, and smart enough to recognize the urgent need for them. A nation so well positioned should be able to ask its leaders for resolute action. Let us ask them now—so that future generations of Canadians will say of us all, that 'we have done great things together'." (Allan Taylor, Financial Post, January 17, 1989)
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