STORY: The Bundestag has given the green light for the 200 billion euro defensive shield against the skyrocketing energy prices. The factions of the traffic light parties voted for the law on Friday. The opposition criticized that the exact use of the funds remained unclear. The debt cap for the 2022 federal budget was lifted a second time. The Corona Crisis Fund WSF is to be reactivated and provided with new funds for the defense shield. The funds can then be used until mid-2024 to finance the planned gas price brake, the planned electricity price brake and help for ailing companies. Criticism came from the taxpayers’ association. The aid would have to be distributed in a targeted manner, said President Reiner Holznagel: “We still don’t have a very clear copy of how the gas price brake and the electricity price brake work. But it has become clear, including in the Commission, that it is not possible to react in a targeted manner here. You don’t know exactly who is behind the gas meters and in what form. And against this background, of course, we also fear certain deadweight effects. That must be avoided. And it is also important to avoid moving funds with all other measures that are actually not necessary at this point. We have seen that in the past, and that is why we also ask for help when it is needed, in a targeted and needs-based manner.” Holznagel looks to the future with concern: “From 2031, when the special assets of the Bundeswehr, the current economic stabilization fund and also the regular repayment of the corona debt are incurred, then the federal budget will also have to repay over 30 billion euros. These two sums correspond to the Federal Ministry of Research and that Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport practically together. And from this you can see what future tasks the federal budget will have and how the budgets will hardly have any leeway in the future.” Because of the corona pandemic, the debt brake has been suspended since 2020. The German government also justified the renewed lifting for 2022 with the effects of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine.