Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Monday, August 13, 2012

Romney running mate likes Tory tax cuts

He's no fan of Canada's health-care system, insisting it's plagued by inefficiencies and relies on medical equipment that is "old, unreliable and obsolete."

But he sees the federal Conservative government's record on corporate tax cuts as a perfect model for the U.S., once asking: "How on Earth are our businesses going to be able to compete with the Canadians?"

A Wisconsin congressman with at least a fleeting knowledge of nearby Canada has been catapulted into the spotlight by Saturday's announcement that 42-year-old Paul Ryan - a leading conservative voice in the U.S. House of Representatives - will be Republican nominee Mitt Romney's running mate in this year's U.S. presidential election.

Ryan is a strong backer of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline - which he has described as an important conduit for Alberta's "tar oilsands" to reach the U.S. Gulf Coast - arguing that the project would "not only lessen our dependence on Middle Eastern oil but also create thousands of American jobs."

And, vaguely recalling an infamous utterance about Alaska's proximity to Russia by Sarah Palin - his immediate predecessor as Republican vice-presidential candidate - Ryan has referred jokingly to Canada as an "overseas" nation for he and his fellow Wisconsin residents, a land on the far side of Lake Superior.

But Canada is principally on Ryan's radar because of a series of corporate tax cuts that has lowered the rate charged to businesses from about 29 per cent in 2000 to 15 per cent today - with the latest reduction taking effect on Jan. 1 this year.

References to Canada's 15-per-cent rate for business taxes pepper the speeches and statements posted at Ryan's congressional website.

"We're in a global economy. Where I come from, when we say 'overseas' we mean over Lake Superior - Canada, which just dropped its business tax to 15 per cent," Ryan said in an April speech delivered for the George W. Bush Institute. "How on Earth are our businesses going to be able to compete with the Canadians - or the Irish at 12.5 per cent?"

On the health front, however, Canada has been held up by Ryan as an example of much that is wrong with a "government health-care system" and U.S. President Barack Obama's controversial makeover of U.S. Medicare.

"In Canada, the waiting list is up to more than four months between patient referrals and actual treatment for a dozen of the specialty procedures most needed," Ryan wrote in a 2009 article for the conservative magazine The American Spectator. "The aver-age Canadian now has to wait over a month after getting a primary doctor's instruction just for a CT scan, and more than two months for an MRI. Canada's medical equipment is old, unreliable, and obsolete."

Ryan further stated that "Canadians notoriously travel to the U.S. if possible for treatments for everything from cancer and emergency care to hip surgery and childbirth," adding that Canada "has long suffered a professional 'brain drain,' its doctors fleeing the government-run health-care program to practise in the U.S."

He concluded the critique by asking: "Has the Obama Administration explained to Americans the facts about Canada's 'model' of government health care? Is this the kind of national health service the U.S. should imitate?"

On what's currently the most contentious issue in Canada-U.S. relations - Keystone XL - Ryan has made clear his support for the project. After Obama announced in January that he was putting the pipeline proposal on hold until 2013, Ryan stated: "This project has been in the works for several years, and I am disappointed that the president decided this job-creating proposal was not in the nation's best interest."

Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Randy Boswell

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