Federal Liberals and Three Card Monte (en francais)

First we have this, the actual surplus for the first quarter of the fiscal year:

$4.8 Billion Surplus in Federal Coffers
Melanie Adams
Tuesday, August 23, 2005 7:52 AM

then we have Paul Martin and Ralph (Cupboard is bare) Goodale:

Surplus figures 'exaggerated,' PM scoffs
Private-sector estimate of $10B is way off, Martin says; rules out cuts to federal tax on gas

"I have seen private-sector estimates of what the government surplus is going to be, but the minister of finance, yesterday, in fact, said that those numbers were substantially exaggerated and that the surplus would be nowhere near those numbers," Mr. Martin said yesterday in Edmonton during a swing through the Prairie provinces.

There are no economic indicators suggesting that revenue will fall dramatically in the remaining months of the fiscal year. By continually underestimating the surplus, the Liberals are denying Canadians the right to debate what happens with all this money they are taking from our pockets.

This from the man who promised to fix the "democratic deficit" in Canada. The budgetary books may be balanced Mr. Martin, but you continue to pile up the "democratic debt" that Canadians will be paying for for years to come. But then, that's the Liberal way. These guys could teach Three Card Monte dealers a trick or two. They've been doing it with billions of Canadians' taxypayer dollars for years, and we still haven't picked the right card.