Opinion
Budget hole
Saving on citizens’ money? How pathetic!
In the fight against his personal budget deficit, a street musician wearing an animal mask plays the accordion on a bridge in Frankfurt.
In order to close the budget gap, the first step is to cancel the increase in citizens’ allowance. This is what the Union and FDP demand. That could be expensive.
What’s most annoying about this citizen’s money debate? That it forces me to write a reflexive, old-left, almost “New Germany”-like comment like this one. Look here, dear children, that’s what it is, evil capitalism! Thank you too, Markus Söder.
At the weekend, the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU leader came to a conclusion that had already been expressed before him by the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz and the FDP general secretary Bijan Djir-Serai. It says: We simply can no longer afford the planned increase in citizens’ money.
Because of the harsh Karlsruhe ruling, the state will have to cut 17 billion euros from the originally planned budget next year alone. And of course what immediately comes to mind: a cut in social spending. The state cannot simply take out more loans because of the self-imposed debt brake. And there’s no way he can increase taxes, because that’s what Christian Lindner made a firm promise to the FDP voters. He can’t now scare away the last five percent. Sorry, dear citizen benefit recipients!
Yes, yes, the Chancellor certainly still has a lot of “respect”. Just money, he doesn’t have that much anymore. And what little he can still distribute has long since been promised to others.
Should the chip companies come away empty-handed?
Who thinks about the poor chip companies that we have to persuade to build their semiconductor factories in Germany with the help of ten billion euros in subsidies? And what will become of the hundreds of thousands of homeowners who, thanks to Habeck’s heating law, will have to buy expensive heat pumps from next year? Should they now go away empty-handed just so that the recipients of citizens’ benefit get 61 euros more per month?
The standard rate is set to rise by this amount in January. This wasn’t something Saint Hubertus rolled up at night in his Ministry of Social Affairs, it’s the result of a complex process – which the Union-led federal states also agreed to in the mediation committee. But: new facts, new opinion. And given a budget gap of 17 billion euros, 4.5 billion euros in additional costs is a pretty significant fact. This is how much the higher standard rate costs the state per year. Or not. Then a quarter of the hole would be plugged in one fell swoop. That’s tempting.
18 euros seems modest, twelve percent sounds presumptuous
This is also the reason why we now need to talk about proportionality instead. After all, 61 euros is not just two euros more per day, especially since the citizen’s allowance only increases to a total of 18 euros per day. For bread and milk, shoes, winter coats, stamps and electricity. 18 euros – that seems modest. Twelve percent, on the other hand, sounds presumptuous. Twelve percent sound like: Who else should work there?
Don’t get me wrong, you can change all of this. It may be legally permissible to postpone the increase. It is not forbidden to demand more “support and demand”. One can also discuss whether Ukrainian refugees really have to receive citizen’s benefit immediately. But if we’re going to talk about proportionality, why not talk about this for a change: 1.5 percent of Germans own 3,600 billion euros. More than 90 percent of all Germans together own 1.5 percent.
I know, unfortunately there’s nothing you can do about it. So there’s only one thing left for us: As soon as things get tight, we’d rather discuss the few bucks that we graciously grant to the poorest in society. Or not. Because we can no longer afford it? There will be three state elections in the east next year. Their results could cost us much more.