The months-long debates on the federal budget 2024 and the financial planning until 2027 again show the weakness of the government. The same applies to the outcome of these disputes, which is to be immediately heard by Parliament.
The negotiated compromise is a 364-page cabinet proposal that finance minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wants to present on Wednesday. Within a serious economic crisis lasting for four years, it is the attempt to keep at least the state treasury together: The debt-brake is to be re-established so that the state finances will not go down the brook completely in the future.
The supposed solution approach is simple - save. 445.7 billion Euros will be spent in 2024 according to the draft of the Minister of Finance, after planned 476.3 billion in the current year. The budget will then grow to EUR 467.2 by 2027.
Where is it saved? Of course in "social expenditure". The Munich ifo Institute has recently demanded this in a media-effective manner. "A large part of the expenditure of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is used, for example, for transfers which only the beneficiaries benefit," says it among others. Among other things, the federal grant for caring insurance will be completely cancelled next year and the state grant currently paid to the statutory health insurance will be frozen at the previous level. The grant for statutory pension insurance should be reduced in accordance to the wishes of the Minister of Finance.
Care, pension and health insurance will therefore clearly lower the net income of workers in this country. It must always be remembered that the comparatively high results in the last strikes, which are mainly due to increasing readines and willingness to struggle by the workers, generally compensate price increases in the past few years, max.
At present, only two billion euros per year are planned for the planned and largely advertised so-called children's basic insurance. Up to now, the Ministry for the Family assumed a financial requirement of EUR 12 billion per year. How the Ampel-coalition will solve this problem remains to be seen. In fact, the debt brake also includes the possibility of borrowing beyond the limit of around 15 billion euros, which are considered to be investments.
With a view to the future parental-money, the medial uproar is quite big. Even the Handelsblatt becomes at once the bulwark of defending the rights of women and children, speaks of a dangerous venture. It is intended to significantly reduce the upper income limit until parental allowance is granted. At 150,000 euros annual income, gross. For comparison: A pair of teachers with a total net monthly income of 4,000 euros, 8,000 euros together, will have less than 130,000 Euro gross income per year. In this respect, it is possible to assert: This is where - for once - those who do not need it so much are those who loose some.
The only ministry that is spared from the austerity measures is the Federal Ministry of Defence. Here too, the "experts" of the ifo-Institut already have a demand. More money for the Bundeswehr, more, more than the 100 billion extra and more than two percent. "In the household, expenditure on public goods is to be preferred, of which all citizens have something," says the ifo researcher Niklas Potrafke, which in this context seems to be somewhat scrupulous. In fact, German imperialism has recognized that it has to overcome its deficiencies in the military sector in order to play with the great ones, meaning to continue in striving to make the leap to become a superpower.
