• Taxpayers react to October budget trial balloons
  
• CTF says Liberal leadership chaos has paralyzed the government
  
• CTF offers 'Back 2 Basics' budget plan for Finance Minister Manley

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today reacted to reports stating that an October federal budget is under active consideration by the federal government.

Trial balloon
"While we expected Ottawa to float out some trial balloons this summer in relation to the government's fall agenda, the resurrection of the broadband boondoggle and hammering businesses by expanding parental leave to two years is very, very troubling," said CTF federal director Walter Robinson.

Liberal leadership chaos
"The Prime Minister's endless search for a legacy and the fact that he's fighting to keep his job amounts to lethal and dangerous combination that imperils our fiscal health," added Robinson. "With today's reported shopping list from doubling parental leave to dodging the Romanow report to resurrecting the broadband boondoggle, Canadians should brace themselves for a 1970s deficit-styled federal spending spree."

"Sadly, the civil war within the Liberal party has paralyzed official Ottawa. Every pressing national issue from trade disputes to defence funding to substantive health care reform has taken a back seat to the fight for the keys to 24 Sussex Drive," stated Robinson.

CTF's 'Back 2 Basics' budget plan
"John Manley is no doubt loyal to the Prime Minister, yet his first duty is to taxpayers. He should eschew the bureaucrats' big government agenda presently being crafted and instead borrow from our Back 2 Basics: ABCDEFG budget plan," concluded Robinson.

A Abolition of the "capital tax" on business to foster real and lasting innovation.
B Basic Personal Exemption raised to $10,000 (presently $7,634) over three years and to $15,000 over the next six years.
C Corporate Welfare: End all industrial and regional subsidy programs and replace them with broad-based business tax reductions.
D Debt reduction: Adopt an annual legislated schedule of debt repayments.
E EI and CPP: End the annual $750 million overcharge EI and CPP premiums on employers.
F Forces and Family: Invest properly in the Canadian military and adopt the 1966 Carter Royal Commission on Taxation recommendation to make the "family" the base unit of taxation.
G Gas tax for cities: Implement the CTF's Municipal Roadway Trust model to pump $2 billion of annual gas tax revenues into city streets.