You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. And you too, Mr. Martin.

The fabled Grinch is a selfish creature that sneaks into town to steal presents and wreck Christmas. In the same way, Paul Martin's insidious buddy, The Bracket Creep, sneaks into your paycheque, steals your money, and wrecks your family income.

No, Bracket Creep is not a rejected Dr. Suess character. It is in fact a very successful and sneaky way of stealing your money that was instituted by Brian Mulroney and raised to a high art form by the current Liberal government.

How successful is it A recent report by the C.D. Howe institute says that a family that earns as little as $30,000 to $40,000 per year is paying up to $1,000 more in taxes each year because of the effect of Bracket Creep.

The report also says that Ottawa will take in $8.3 billion more in tax revenue, and hand out $2.7 billion less in payment for things such as Old Age Security, because of Bracket Creep.

So what is this Bracket Creep

Bracket Creep was born when the Mulroney government stopped adjusting income tax brackets to fully account for inflation in 1985. When the brackets are fixed, and incomes grow due to inflation, tax brackets turn into tax traps. The trap is sprung when a basic "cost of living" increases in your income pushes you into a higher tax bracket. We're not talking about big raises. We're talking about the two or three percent adjustments that make sure your pay keeps pace with the cost of things like utilities, food, clothing, and shelter.

But this doesn't matter to Bracket Creep. If the figure on your paycheque goes up, Bracket Creep catches you. And because of the higher taxes, you are actually worse off than before you got the cost of living increase.

One way to measure the impact of Bracket Creep is to look at the basic personal exemption on the income tax form, which is amount of income you are allowed tax-free. The exemption has remained fixed at $6,456 since 1992. If taxes were still indexed to inflation, the exemption would be $8,055, and you would have another $1,500 in tax-free income!

Bracket Creep is especially harsh for low and middle-income earners. Literally millions of Canadians - including people who are below the Statscan "poverty line" - have been pushed onto the tax rolls and into higher brackets, and become ineligible for tax credits such as the GST and child tax benefit, because of Bracket Creep.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation's own research show that even for people in the lowest tax bracket, Bracket Creep has amounted to a cumulative total of about $7,000 in higher taxes since 1992.

There is absolutely no excuse for this 13-year, $10 billion tax grab by our cash hungry governments. But perhaps the most offensive thing about this stealth tax is the fact it is being imposed on Canadians every year without their knowledge or consent. All the politicians have to do is sit on their duffs and watch the bucks roll in without ever having to go before Parliament to get permission for a tax hike.

Merry Christmas, Canada, you're getting Ho Ho Hosed!