OK, I lied

I know I said I wouldn't say anything else about the budget, but given that one of the last things I wrote was:

"Where I feared that the distant plans actually would be implemented, most [everybody else] derided the government for even making such unlikely to be implemented plans. I guess we'll see how things go over the next few years.",

I couldn't pass up mentioning Jeffrey Simpson's recent column (overpriced subscription only) in the Globe in which he says,

"Only a prime minister with a fierce will, or a sharply different ideology, could adjust, let alone shatter, the iron framework of spending set by the 2005 budget."

And while I think his conclusion that,

"Politics will be about debates at the margin of things, or about value-laden social issues that don't cost money, because the cupboard for years to come has already been stripped bare."

is a bit over the top, if the next few budgets keep adding on another 5 years worth of spending/tax cut increases each, he may not be too far off. Anyway, I was starting to doubt my own reaction after it turned out to be such a minority opinion so it's nice to see a similar opinion offerred up by someone who's been following this stuff way longer than I have.