Source: Politico 11/22/2025
Sen. Twit Tillis sings them Back Dues blues
GOP lawmaker demands $300B in defense dues from Canada
HALIFAX — Republican lawmaker Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina says it’s all good and well that Canada is finally meeting its NATO defense spending commitments, but Canada should make up for two decades of back dues — to the tune of $300 billion.
“Can we do a makeup payment for the 20 years of shortfalls as well?” Tillis told a Saturday panel at the Halifax International Security Forum, a international gathering of defense officials and security professionals.
Court Painter and his entire studio team was royally roiled by this asinine assertion and promptly assembled a team of on-the-spot newly credentialed forensic economists to lay out some facts for Senator Thom “Twit” Tillis.
Court Painter operates the Canadian calculator with skill and accuracy!
The Court Painter Forensic Team including Press Attaché and forensic opinionist AHM, alongside part-time studio forensic economist Chatterley Histrionic Abernathy Thunderbuns (Chat GPT)—got out their trusty calculators to determine how the USA has and continues to siphon billions each year from the Great Dominion’s economy.
While it must be pointed out that economists traditionally enjoy a certain latitude with precision, the Court Painter’s forensic team nevertheless claims far more reliability than U.S. Senator Thom Twit Tillis’s much-discussed—but entirely fanciful—spreadsheet of “makeup payments” (which can readily be read as “made-up” payments) supposedly owed by Canada.
Court Painter points out the obvious Canadian response to US financial demands.
The CP Forensic Team confirmed that Alberta’s oil revenue losses are far from trivial. The culprit is the WTI–WCS differential—a price gap so volatile it could justify its own monitoring system. Because it constantly fluctuates, there is no single, stable figure for “how much Alberta loses by selling discounted oil to American buyers.” However, by reviewing historical data and applying standard industry analysis, the team found the losses can be severe: $10 billion to over $20 billion CAD in a single year during periods of significant disparity, with 2018 standing as one of the worst years on record.
For Alberta’s government, this translates into hundreds of millions—sometimes billions—in forgone royalty revenue whenever the differential widens dramatically.
Not content with examining a single economic pressure point, the studio’s crack forensic team of bright lights also turned to the impact of:
Removing Canada’s Digital Services Tax (DST). Designed to ensure major digital platforms contribute fairly to the Canadian marketplace, eliminating it would mean forgoing an estimated $1.2 billion in annual federal revenue.
To this, one must add the financially stressful imposition of U.S. tariffs on Canadian aluminum, steel, lumber, and auto production:
- Aluminum and Steel: These tariffs have cost Canadian producers hundreds of millions of dollarsin lost revenue, legal expenditures, and market instability.
- Lumber: The recurring softwood lumber dispute has extracted billions from the Canadian forestry sector over the years, as duties disrupt trade and prolong legal battles.
- Automotive: Threatened and actual tariffs on vehicles and components have destabilized a sector worth tens of billions, compelling manufacturers to adjust supply chains and absorb additional costs.
The Court Painter economic forensic team’s findings resemble a hybrid of swindle and shakedown!
Summary:
- Oil discount losses: $10–20+ billion CAD annually in severe differential years
- Alberta royalty losses: Hundreds of millions to billions
- Eliminating the DST: $1.2 billion in federal revenue lost annually
- U.S. tariffs on aluminum, steel, lumber, autos: Billions in cumulative economic impact
While the Court Painter economic forensic team readily acknowledges the imperfect nature of economic estimation and figure fudging, the financial consequences themselves remain unmistakably—and consistently—a substantial burden on the fine citizens of the Great Dominion imposed by policies of the United States of America.
PM Carney expected to respond to US back dues demand with a four letter word!