What's the bargain?

Thomas Walkom made a reasonable point a few weeks ago:

Take one example: Harper's decision to reduce the GST from seven to five per cent. He has been roundly assailed for this move. The New Democrats say the tax cut favours the rich. Liberal leader Stéphane Dion says it is so odious that, if elected, he might reverse it.

And yet many of these same left-liberals were equally outraged this week by a new study pointing out that the tax system has become less fair since 1990 because (wait for it) governments have been relying too much on regressive sales taxes like the GST.

Sure, and if the deal was the GST gets cut and income taxes in the high brackets get raised, I'd be for that in a hot second. But that's not the deal on offer: the choice is between a government that has $60 billion to spend and do things with over the next few years, or one that doesn't. For progressives, that's no choice at all.