Chancellery Minister Helge Braun is making a move to suspend the debt brake for a longer period by amending the Basic Law for disputes within the Union.
Chancellery chief
Helge Braun
calls for a longer suspension of the debt brake through an amendment to the constitution.
Fierce criticism comes immediately from the CDU / CSU parliamentary group.
She sees the debt brake as a model for success.
Finance Minister
Olaf Scholz
(SPD) is open to Braun's proposal, but sees difficulties in implementation.
Berlin -
Chancellery chief Helge Braun (CDU)
has
called for a longer suspension of the debt brake in
view of the stresses caused by the
Corona crisis
.
To this end, he brought an
amendment
to the
Basic Law
into play.
“The debt brake will not be adhered to in the coming years, even with otherwise strict spending discipline,” wrote Braun in a guest article for the
Handelsblatt.
Braun spoke out against continuing to use the exception for natural disasters as before.
Because, according to Braun, it is completely unclear how long the pandemic would justify an exception to the debt brake.
"That is why it makes sense to combine a recovery strategy for the economy in Germany with an amendment to the Basic Law," wrote the Chancellery Minister.
This should provide a
reliable, narrowing corridor for new borrowing in
the coming years
and
stipulate
a clear date for the return to compliance with the debt rule.
The
corona lockdown
has only just been extended in Germany.
The
restrictions
apply until mid-February.
But nobody really knows how long it will go on afterwards.
The debt brake enshrined in the Basic Law * means that federal and state spending must generally be financed without loans.
These
budgets should therefore always be balanced
.
The federal government is therefore normally allowed to borrow a maximum of 0.35 percent of the gross domestic product.
The Bundestag had already lifted the debt brake for the 2020 and 2021 budgets in order to enable
higher new borrowing for the billions of dollars of the Corona crisis
.
However, Braun now turned against these “annual individual decisions”.
Helge Braun: Criticism from your own party on the push to suspend the debt brake
The advance immediately met with some
fierce criticism
from Braun's own party.
The
CDU / CSU parliamentary group
- to which Helge Braun himself belongs - firmly refused to suspend the debt brake for any length of time.
"The Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag is holding on to the debt brake in the Basic Law," said
the parliamentary group's spokesman for budget policy, Eckhardt Rehberg
.
"Solid state finances are not negotiable for the Union faction." The debt brake has proven itself, because it
stands for intergenerational equity and sustainability.
The current low interest rates are deceptive, warned Rehberg.
"When interest rates rise again, high debts mean high risks for future households."
CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt also
called the debt brake a "successful model".
He dismissed Braun's proposal as a “contribution to the debate”.
CSU boss Markus Söder
called Braun's idea “a wrong signal” and said: “We cannot solve the economic consequences of the corona pandemic in the long run with higher debts or high taxes.” What is needed is a coherent economic policy concept, Söder said.
"Germany stands for financial integrity, and we should stick to it." The
head of the CDU SME Association, Carsten Linnemann,
described the debt brake in the
world
as "one of the most important political disciplinary instruments that curb the state's willingness to spend".
A change in the Basic Law would be “a breach of the dam”.
Debt brake: Finance Minister Scholz open to Braun's proposal
The coalition partner SPD * showed more openness.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz
was open to re-regulating the debt brake to cope with the corona pandemic.
Scholz, however, pointed out: “In addition to many advantages, this proposal requires considerable legislative interventions, which require a broad cross-party consensus.” Given the resistance in the CDU parliamentary group, this consensus currently seems rather questionable.
Changes to the foundation law are
only possible with a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag
.
Scholz
said that when the world economy picks up again, Germany
will
be able to
grow out of debt in the medium term
.
Until then, however, there are challenges in the household.
It is clear to him that the welfare state security systems should not be cut and that investments must continue to be made at a high level, emphasized Scholz.
Debt brake: Criticism also from the FDP on the advance of Helge Braun
FDP leader Christian Lindner,
on the other hand, has little left for the idea.
The position presented by Braun had "the character of a financial policy capitulation," he also said in the
Handelsblatt
.
The CDU is not even waiting for concrete figures for the 2022 budget.
FDP parliamentary group vice Christian Dürr
emphasized that the debt brake ensures fairness between generations and has made the state capable of acting in the crisis.
"Weakening this instrument would be irresponsible." The
president of the taxpayers' association, which is always critical of spending, Reiner Holznagel
, told the
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung that
anyone who loops the rules of the debt brake "is going back to a permanent debt policy".
Helge Braun,
on the other hand, sees a longer-term deviation from the debt brake as a
“strategic decision for economic recovery”
.
The indebtedness gained through an amendment to the Basic Law should make it possible to prevent additional financial burdens for citizens and companies.
In the article, Braun also spoke out in favor of “stabilizing social security contributions by the end of 2023 and also
foregoing tax increases
”.
Debt brake: Linke, on the other hand, sees the debt brake primarily as an obstacle to investment
Unsurprisingly, the left * has more sympathy for the proposal, because it doesn't like the debt brake anyway.
Left party leader Katja Kipping
told the
world
that this was one thing above all else: “A brake on investment and thus economically counterproductive.
It should be disposed of. "What Helge Braun is proposing is better" than the Union's previous debt brake fetishism, but by no means the necessary departure from the investment brake ".
The co-chair
Bernd Riexinger
criticized in turn that Braun would stabilize social spending by the end of 2023 and not want to increase taxes.
“This would ensure that, despite the loosening of the debt brake, it is not the rich and corporations but rather the wage earners and beneficiaries who pay the crisis.” The debate has begun.
(AFP / dpa / ck) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital editorial network.
