Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish

I would like to rewrite the old adage, "if you look after the pennies, the dollars will look after themselves."

How about something like:
"If you spend enough time bitching about a $4 million gun registry, everyone will forget the $1,000 million 2-day summit , the $10,000 million in unneeded prisons and the $16,000 million on fighter jets you just spent."

The people of Toronto seem to have this disease even worse. The Toronto Star has decided that Ford's budget claims pass the smell-test. I think there is an important implication when using the word "budget" when discussing a mayoral candidate. Because while Ford's claims to have saved the city $1.5 million in his 10 years in office may stand up to scrutiny (insofar as he spent about $1.3 million less than he was allowed to), it would take cutting the staff budgets and expense accounts of all 1,300 councilors to make up the $2,000 million in taxes he wants to cut right away. What? We don't have 1,300 councilors to cut? Well, I'm sure a man smart enough to eliminate Toronto's bedbug problem will come up with something.