(Video) Conservatives play political games with EI, Liberals don't read the fine print

Is it any wonder everyone thinks they're all a bunch of idiots up there in Ottawa? Given today's events, I don't think there is. Unfortunately, they're a bunch of idiots that control many billions in spending that can impact our lives for better or for worse, so we can't just ignore them.

In short, the Liberals agreed to bypass Senate hearings and pass the budget today, after before insisting pretty firmly we wanted to give the Senate a few days to do its sober second thought thing, because it turns out the Conservatives buried a provision in the fine-print around the effective date of the extension (by five weeks) to EI eligibility. Everything else in the budget comes into affect April 1st, but the EI changes come into affect retroactively two weeks BEFORE the budget is passed. Therefore, every day the budget isn't passed people fall off the EI roles that would otherwise get benefits.

The Liberals say we didn't notice this before, and that the Conservatives didn't bring it up until Jim Flaherty's Senate testimony this week and they were trying to set us up with political shenanigans. The Conservatives say they were totally talking about this all along, and the Liberals (and every other political party and the national media and the blogsphere and your mom) just never noticed.

First, let me just say this to my Liberal Party: WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU READ THE DAMMED BUDGET! I mean, really, what the hell guys? I mean, I know it's a thick document. Lots of fine print. But we know the Conservatives are sneaky-sneaks. Did no one read the dammed thing? I know finances are tight, but let's find a way to get “guy that reads the budget to check for sneaky Conservative shit” back on the payroll, k? Or maybe give everyone in the office a few pages so it goes faster. Order in some schwarma, make it a party. But really, you're killing me here guys.

Ok, done venting. Now, Conservative Party, you guys are so full of shit here it's ridiculous. Of course you buried it, hoping they wouldn't find it, so you could jump up and say “Ah Ha! Those dastardly Liberals are holding back EI from Canadians in need! They totally suck, and so forth!” You weren't clear about when the EI changes were coming into effect at all. If you were, someone would have noticed. Other parliamentarians, the media, anyone. They'd have been all over it. But no one did.

Not even your Senators. The Conservative Senate leadership agreed to a time line for Senate debate of the budget that included hearings this week and passage before the end of the month.

Why, pray tell why, would the Conservative Senate leadership agree to this time line if they knew it would deprive Canadians of five weeks of EI benefits? Did they just not care? Were they setting up the Liberals, hoping they'd take the bait so you could then blame them for obstruction, so you could score political points at the expense those EI benefits? Or did you just not tell your Senators this was in the budget either?

And why set this sort of time frame for bringing the EI changes into effect, which is completely out of precedent with normal procedure, unless you're screwing around? Using the EI eligibility of millions of Canadians during an economic crisis as a political football to try to either tar your political opposition or force them to ram through billions in needed stimulus is disgusting. It is patently obvious that the Harper Conservatives have learned nothing from the fiscal update brouhaha. Clearly, political gamesmanship remains more important to The Harper Government then bringing Canadians the help they need.

When finally clued-in to the Conservative EI trap, the Liberals had little choice but to skip the hearings and pass the thing forthwith. We'd already passed it through the House, and it was going to pass the Senate as well. It's far from a perfect budget -- I'm upset with a lot of the provisions – but this is an economic crisis and this is stimulus that Canadians want and need.

The Liberals decided to support this imperfect budget because, thanks to the pressure of the opposition parties, it is substantially improved from the economic update. Also, Canadians don't want an election right now. They want action on the economy, and they want all the parties to make a good faith effort to work together. The Liberals have been making that good faith effort, and the Conservatives have responded with political games.

Now, though, that this budget has passed and this needed stimulus should be on its way to Canadians, my patience with these Conservatives and their political games is running extremely thin. I think Canadians' patience is wearing thin too.

Read more at Impolitical and Liberal Arts and Minds.

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