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wttv ilPinsainnfisiai low the HERALD OUTLOOK is published each Saturday by the HILLS HERALD Home Newspaper of HiUs A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited at Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario 8772201 PUBLISHER David A Beattie EDITOR Brian MacLeod AD MANAGER Dan Taylor Second Class Mall Registered Number STAFF WRITERS Alan SPORTS EDITOR Colin Gibson ACCOUNTING Jennie Hapichuk Inga Shier CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Joan ADVERTISING SALES Jeannine Valois Craig Teeter Roberts PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Dave Hastings Annie Olsen Myles Gilson Wilson CIRCULATION Marie National debt is growing SNAFU by Bruce Beattie Despite the finance ministers ef forts Canada is sinking deeper and deeper in debt While the budget deficit is slowly falling the na tional debt is growing In his budget speech last Tues day Michael Wilson acknowledged the problem The debt is still growing faster than the economy faster than our ability to pay Mr Wilson said Indeed interest payments on the debt each year are larger than the annual budget deficit The government will pay nearly billion in Interest this year equal to for every man woman and child in the country for a family of four The deficit by comparison will be billion If it werent for the billion in accumulated debt we would be running a budget surplus Each year the national debt grows by the amount of the budget deficit Mr Wilson says he has checked the deficits growth and begun to shrink it Five years from now if all goes well the govern ment will begin buying back its bonds and treasury bills This will be the first repayment of principal Until then we will have to keep borrowing to pay interest on the in terest on the growing national debt TELLING NUMBERS Consider the numbers The federal governments budget deficit will be billion for the fiscal year ending March 31 1990 Next year it will be 285 billion Mr Wilson predicts It will fall to billion in billion in 1993 billion in and 10 billion in if all goes well The national debt will grow from billion in the year ending March 31 to billion next year billion in 428 billion in billion in and 452 billion in Thats when we will begin paying it back with luck For every dollar the government collects cents goes to pay in terest on the debt Mr Wilson said By the number will be cut to 26 cents How did we get into such a mess The finance minister offered an ex planation In when the Con servatives came to power the was living beyond its means he said This was largely the legacy of the recession In a real sense we have had to fight not one deficit but two Mr Wilson said In 1984 the govern ment had to borrow billion to cover the difference between spen ding on programs and services and the revenues it collected he said That was the first deficit the operating deficit DEBT MOUNTAIN At the same time a mountain of debt was generating more than billion in annual in terest charges Every penny of this interest was paid by additional borrowing This was the second deficit hpsmri Berrys World SAID THEY SAY LISTENING TO VERY LOUD ROCK MUSIC CAN LEAD TO HEARING LOSS Inc Can taxpayers believe our finance minister Theodore finds a new way to keep his head down on golf shots US Capital gets taste of Great White North Kevin Bell Washington Bureau Thornton that the snowdrops and daffodils are star ling to bloom can rest easy that another winter is almost behind them And what a winter it was Snow actually stayed on the ground three times after storms twice in December and once in November And for two frigid weeks Washingtonians shivered as theyve rarely shivered before With temperatures plunging to 10 C described as bitterly cold by the Washington Post residents got an unpleasant taste of the deep freeze It was enough to make even the most hardened residents grumble It isnt supposed to be that way in a city thats located at the northern tip of Virginia If it does get cold it usually warms up quickly enough to erase the memories of frigid weather Brief cold spells are balanced by extended warm periods when winter temperatures can easily rise to 10 But this winter was unusual Two weeks before Christmas it snowed twice and the thermometer strug gled to reach the freezing point The result was a white Christmas which say has only a chance of occurring in Washington It even snowed on Thanksgiving Nov 23 con sidered a twopercent longshot AGHAST Washingtonians were aghast Theyre always saying its the first time it has ever happened one Canadian observed When the 198889 winter passed without a single significant snowfall it was the first time it ever happened When it snowed twice in two days it was the first time theyve seen so much snow If snow begins to accumulate on the streets the reaction is something akin to panic The heart of the free world is supposed to deal with all sorts of crises but a minor snowfall can virtually crip ple the government A snow squall that dumped three inches prompted the government to close its offices at noon Workers were sent home Managers of downtown stores closed up early and posted signs explaining the ac tion was taken because of a snow emergency Few venture out when snow is falling one of the largest downtown department stores was almost empty one afternoon during a mild snowfall At the slightest chance of snow schools throughout the District of Columbia and surrounding coun ties announce closures Many decide to close on the basis of a forecast before a single flake has fallen When snow was predicted one day in December the government requested that only essential per sonnel show up at work Some considered it a ruse to get everybody to work After all who wants to stay home and admit be or she is not essential Almost every snowfall is con sidered a storm When weather forecasters predict snow they emerge from their traditional backup role on local TV news pro grams and move up to the top of the broadcast Forget all that fuss in Eastern Europe or South Africa the top story today is IT MIGHT SNOW They warn everyone to take evasive action Its not just or dinary snow here in Washington but snow that is expected to stick they say with a dramatic sense of foreboding SAFE The anchormen pop questions about the approaching storm How much snow How long is it ex pected to last Is there a chance it will be deeper than the four inches that are expected Is it safe go outside Vic Parsons Bunuu Michael Wilson just about has his Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher imitations down pat but hell have to work a bit on his George Bush Youll remember of course the approach of the former American president and the current British prime minister privatization deregulation and massive spen ding cuts especially in social pro grams In short major structural changes to reduce the role of government in the economy Our finance minister seems to be getting there His budget Tuesday provided more evidence of that After Reagan left the White House his successor Bush came along with a new line Read my lips Nonew taxes Wilson stole Bushs no new taxes phrase on Tuesday but somehow it doesnt ring true Sure the Conservative backbench a tri fle edgy these days about the mood of the voters erupted in cheers But one cant resist asking should taxpayers out there be relieved A Canadian skeptic could find sympathy with the American satirist who agreed with Bush that there would be no new taxes Hell just increase the old ones In Wilsons case he could dramatically toss off the notaxes line on Tuesday because hed already set up taxpayers for 1990 In his budget last April he nailed individuals and companies for a total of billion this year Remember that one DEFICIT CUTTER And in 1991 hell be going to the well for the goods and services tax Originally described as revenue neutral it now is taking its place among the pantheon of deficit- reduction measures The finance minister likely shied away from tax hikes this time around because of the heat he took last spring Business critics and mainstream economists booed his effort then because they felt he should emphasize spending cuts over taxes to trim the deficit It has been pointed out that since Wilson took on his portfolio six budgets ago there have been 32 tax increases Tax revenues col lected by Ottawa are expected to tally about billion in the com- tag fiscal year up from billion in 198485 Thats a cent rise compared with inflation totalling about per cent over the same period These changes have mightily an noyed Wilsons friends let alone his enemies Clearly he had to try another approach One of those approaches is to toss the problem into the laps of the provinces When Wilson said no new taxes what he really meant was none that he will be blamed for In stead the provinces and municipalities who are bearing the brunt of the federal restraint program will be on the spot