Link to Full Story Here (warning: PDF).

Over the last two months, we’ve heard a lot of complaints from Conservatives who want to slash taxes and, in many cases, slash public spending as well.

Of course, this is wrong-minded economics. Anyone who’s picked up an economic textbook in the last 100 years knows that the way to avoid recessions is to take fiscal surpluses from periods of positive growth and spend them during periods of negative growth, hopefully avoiding any substantial downturn in the economy.

You treat the operation of the public sector the exact opposite of how you would if you were running a business. That’s why businessmen who become politicians are ultimately politicians you don’t want.

This report from the Centre for Policy Alternatives is a healthy read because it reinforces that notion. I’m going to cheat a little for you by providing some of the conclusions:

The 13 years of prosperity experienced by most of us from 1995 to 2008 resulted in healthy balance sheets for all our governments. Despite Mr. Flaherty’s two-year long campaign to give away our rainy day fund, we must remember that significant amounts of the surpluses were booked against our national debt. This is what allows us the fiscal resiliency to make social programs more robust and to improve them when they are needed most.

… We should not be hunkering down.

… We should not be thinking ‘look out below’.

… We should not be reining in our calls for change.