Boiling the budget down to the number that matters most

Let’s assume the federal budget to be delivered day after tomorrow maintains, as advertised, more or less a holding pattern for 2010-11 on spending and taxes. The real news (after fun surprises) will be in whatever framework it sets for shrinking the deficit over the next few years.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper summed up the challenged yesterday this way: “We know we cannot … spend at this kind of level indefinitely.” Given the $50-billion-plus deficit Ottawa is now running, his point might sound unassailable.