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In a 17-hour meeting, the grand coalition approved the federal budget for next year. The recently announced crown bridge aid made the new debts even more assumed.
The grand coalition wants to take on nearly € 180 billion in new debt next year and invest much more money than planned in health, transport and infrastructure. The budget committee agreed this Friday morning in Berlin.
The federal budget for 2021 now forecasts a total of about € 498.6 billion, just less than in the current year, when aid programs worth billions were spontaneously funded due to the pandemic. The Bundestag wants to approve the budget in the week of December 8-11.
Almost 40 billion bridging aid
At the 17-hour “cleanup meeting”, the housekeepers decided on several changes to Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz’s draft, which the cabinet approved in September. The bottom line is that spending has now increased by more than € 85 billion by comparison. Scholz had already made several adjustments himself. He had to plan for the costs of vaccines against the corona virus and billions more in aid for the economy affected by the renewed partial lockdown.
The finance minister completed the additional loans planned shortly before the final committee meeting of € 96-180 billion. The latest adjustment of more than 20 billion was necessary after the federal-state consultations on Wednesday, when, among other things, new financial aid was agreed for December. Housekeepers added more in some places and cut something in others. There is now 39.5 billion euros available for bridging aid for the economy, and aid from the crown has been extended, for example to professional sports clubs.
No solidarity surcharge applies
Around 2,700 million euros are foreseen for the acquisition of corona vaccines. Large sums of money also go to aid for many households. In the next year, most citizens will no longer have to pay the solidarity surcharge, this is the biggest tax cut in recent years. In addition, families should receive 15 euros more in child benefit per month.
For all taxpayers, it increases the basic tax-free allowance on which no income tax is paid. The housewives also decided to raise funds for the renovation of municipal facilities in the areas of sports, youth and culture, and increased humanitarian aid by 170 million euros.
Greens and FDP criticize budget decision
The Greens’ housekeeper, Sven-Christian Kindler, described the loan as correct. However, the grand coalition’s budget has a social imbalance and leaves the unemployed and the self-employed in the rain. Investments for restructuring the climate-neutral economy are too small, instead the federal government is saving billions of large corporations that make money from fossil fuels. “This budget is a threat to the climate,” Kindler emphasized.
Otto Fricke, FDP housekeeper, for his part, harshly criticized the high loans. The Union and the SPD would incur twice as much debt as necessary. Instead of accepting savings proposals and investing the released money in high-quality FFP2 masks, for example, the coalition is making it easy for them. “It issues the government a blank check for 35 billion through global overspending and thus gets rid of further development of ideas,” criticized Fricke. “Never before has so many additional debts been resolved in a cleanup meeting by the Budget Committee in a matter of hours. That is a record, but sadly a sad one.”
