Conservative leadership candidate and MP Pierre Poilievre announced a plan to cap government spending with a Pay-As-You-Go Law, requiring it to find a dollar of savings for every dollar of new spending measures..“The cost of government is driving up the cost of living,” said Poilievre. “Half-a-trillion dollars of inflationary deficits have bid up the cost of goods and inflationary taxes have increased the costs to businesses that make those goods. Why are deficits and taxes so high? To fund colossal spending increases.”.A Pay-As-You-Go Act would cap spending by requiring the government to find money for new measures within existing budgets, rather than increasing the debt and taxes. In order to introduce a new dollar of spending measures, the government would first need to find a matching dollar of savings..The law would exempt funding for national emergencies like wars, pandemics and natural disasters, and spending increases that were previously budgeted would not be impacted. But new spending measures that were not previously budgeted would require matching savings..Right now, according to Poilievre, there is "no incentive for anyone in government to root out failing or wasteful programs." He said in the cases where a cabinet minister does so, there’s no photo op, promotion or social media hashtag to celebrate. And if public servants or politicians try to reduce costs, they only get "angry bureaucrats and corrupt interest groups attacking them for taking away their honey pots.".Poilievre said with federal budgets capped, the economy would have a chance to the cost of government, reducing inflation and making life more affordable..Had a Pay-As-You-Go Act been in place during COVID-19, the federal government's $576 billion in new spending would have needed to be matched by savings, and Canada's total debt would have been $204 billion smaller. .Poilievre pointed out that US Congress also imposed a Pay-As-You-Go Law on the deficit-prone United States Federal Government in 1990, which remained in place throughout the Clinton administration. Within a few years of its introduction, America's deficit was gone and the country had its first balanced budget since 1969..The law expired under George W. Bush in 2002, and the U.S. government immediately returned to deficit.."Pay-As-You-Go does not limit what we get from the government. It limits what it costs us," Poilievre said..Poilievre said families and businesses already follow Pay-As-You-Go Law every day, as when they spend more on one thing, they spend less on another. "A family budget can afford a $2,000 vacation or a $2,000 renovation. Not both. They must pick," he said.."The Pay-As-You-Go Law brings the real world to government. The people have been pinching their pennies long enough. It is time politicians started pinching their pennies too.”
