As of: January 30, 2024, 9:29 a.m
By: Hannes Niemeyer
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The budget discussion is also about Lindner's plan to comply with the debt brake.
Expert Marcel Fratzscher takes a critical view of this – and gives an example of pensions.
Berlin – And the topic of the budget is on the agenda again.
From Tuesday, the Bundestag will begin final discussions on exactly how much money the state can spend on what in 2024.
By Friday, everything for the budget should be dry and the budget should be passed.
At the same time, there should also be a law to implement the austerity measures.
In addition to contentious issues such as the cut in agricultural diesel subsidies, which triggered the nationwide farmers' protests, the debt brake is also on the plan for the 2024 budget. Finance Minister Christian Lindner is determined to stick to it, although his coalition partners SPD and Greens are definitely willing to reform it of the concept would be there.
Debt brake debate: Expert explains the problem on ARD – including pension benefits
But what's actually so bad about the state taking it upon itself to only spend what is actually generated?
Economist Marcel Fratzscher has an answer to this.
“Because it is at the expense of future generations if the state saves in the wrong places,” says the President of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin in the ARD “Morgenmagazin” and adds: “Not all debts are bad debts.”
According to Fratzscher, “100 euros in debt today would mean 200 to 300 euros more in tax revenue in the long term.”
“The problem with the debt brake: It is blind to what the state is spending the money on,” the expert explains.
Finance Minister Lindner must say where he would like to save money.
Then he talks about the “biggest item” in the budget: the pension.
Marcel Fratzscher made his opinion clear on the subject of the debt brake and pensions on ARD - Lindner reacted shortly afterwards.
© Screenshot ARD + dpa/KEYSTONE |
Gian Ehrenzeller
Expert Fratzscher on the debt brake: “Take a look at the pension”
Almost a quarter of the budget went towards subsidies for the statutory pension.
“Take a look at the pension.
Hardly anyone will say that it's too much for them, there's already extremely little there." Fratzscher mentions that the federal government has to "fulfill its promises and can't suddenly say: ätschibätsch, we promised you 30 years ago that your pension is safe and now we are cashing in on this promise again.”
In good times, of course, you would have to save and put money aside, “but now we are in difficult times,” says Fratzscher.
Then this “pride that you save at the wrong end is a false pride”.
Politicians are currently failing to set the course sufficiently for the future.
The fact is that until 2011, Germany “never had a debt brake in the sense in which we have it now”.
The state is more indebted today than it was in 2011. “Before the debt brake, everything was terrible and now everything is great, that’s objectively not true.”
He is therefore in favor of a reform of the debt brake, which economics also suggests.
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Fratzscher criticizes the debt brake on ARD - Lindner reacts shortly afterwards
Christian Lindner's direct reaction to Fratzscher's statements followed shortly afterwards - also in the ARD "Morgenmagazin" interview.
Moderator Michael Strempel underlined Fratzscher's “Not all debt is bad debt” by saying that this is a widespread opinion in the economy.
“You say: Many people say that – and act like an economist,” criticized Lindner.
In the “economic scene,” the picture is “much more differentiated.”
In Germany you pay higher interest rates than you have economic growth.
“That’s why it’s dangerous to continue with the debt,” criticized Lindner, adding that he didn’t understand “this appetite for more and more debt.”
At the traffic lights, Lindner will continue to insist on enforcing and complying with the debt brake.
The finance minister himself is already warning of a possible budget debacle in 2025.
(han)