{"id":31670,"date":"2025-11-24T00:32:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T00:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/?p=31670"},"modified":"2025-11-24T00:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T00:46:08","slug":"decades-of-back-dues-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/?p=31670","title":{"rendered":"decades of Back Dues blues…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: Politico 11\/22\/2025<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/11\/22\/gop-lawmaker-demands-300b-in-defense-dues-from-canada-00666112<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sen. Twit <\/em>Tillis sings them Back Dues blues<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GOP lawmaker demands $300B in defense dues from Canada<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HALIFAX \u2014 Republican lawmaker Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina says it\u2019s 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<\/em> \u2014 to the tune of $300 billion.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cCan we do a makeup payment for the 20 years of shortfalls as well?\u201d Tillis told a Saturday panel at the Halifax International Security Forum, a international gathering of defense officials and security professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Court Painter operates the Canadian calculator with skill and accuracy!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Court Painter Forensic Team including Press Attach\u00e9 and forensic opinionist AHM, alongside part-time studio forensic economist Chatterley Histrionic Abernathy Thunderbuns (Chat GPT)\u2014got out their trusty calculators to determine how the USA has and continues to siphon billions each year from the Great Dominion\u2019s economy.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it must be pointed out that economists traditionally enjoy a certain latitude with precision, the Court Painter\u2019s forensic team nevertheless claims far more reliability than U.S. Senator Thom Twit<\/em> Tillis\u2019s much-discussed\u2014but entirely fanciful\u2014spreadsheet of \u201cmakeup payments\u201d (which can readily be read as \u201cmade-up\u201d payments<\/em>) supposedly owed by Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Court Painter points out the obvious Canadian response to US financial demands.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CP Forensic Team confirmed that Alberta\u2019s oil revenue losses are far from trivial. The culprit is the WTI\u2013WCS differential\u2014a price gap so volatile it could justify its own monitoring system. Because it constantly fluctuates, there is no single, stable figure for \u201chow much Alberta loses by selling discounted oil to American buyers.\u201d 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<\/strong> during periods of significant disparity, with 2018 standing as one of the worst years on record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Alberta\u2019s government, this translates into hundreds of millions\u2014sometimes billions\u2014in forgone royalty revenue<\/strong> whenever the differential widens dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not content with examining a single economic pressure point, the studio\u2019s crack forensic team of bright lights also turned to the impact of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Removing Canada\u2019s 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<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this, one must add the financially stressful imposition of U.S. tariffs on Canadian aluminum, steel, lumber, and auto production:<\/p>\n\n\n\n