2023-06-21 19:58:31
When the debt brake was passed in 2009, the second of its kind, the inventors thought it was more watertight than its predecessor. The aim was that the national debt should not stifle public sector investments. The result was galloping debt because any cornucopia could be declared an investment in the future.
The constitutional court in Karlsruhe then recommended doing what happened at the time, namely introducing a debt brake that deserves its name. Now the court is again faced with the question: is the ingenuity of politicians to circumvent them once again greater than expected?
When crises become the norm
It is because large parts of the Bundestag are not convinced that excessive debt is an irresponsible thing. The result is an unprecedented burden on the federal budget from the traffic light coalition – in less than two years of government.
The CDU/CSU parliamentary group, which is suing in Karlsruhe against the second supplementary budget for 2021, would also have good reason to include one or the other CDU parliamentary group in its criticism of the government. In Mainz, she even agreed to bypass the traffic lights there in the opposition.
Manfred Schäfers Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 6 Hans-Günter Henneke Published/Updated: , Dietrich Creutzburg, Berlin Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 23
In the federal government, too, the Union faction will have difficulties defending its position politically. She is suing against the smuggling of unused funds in the corona fund into the climate fund, a procedure that wrongly refers to the emergency clause of the debt brake. Such an undermining certainly does not correspond to the spirit of the regulation, especially since it could be repeated endlessly in the federal and state governments in the future.
So if Karlsruhe doesn’t put a stop to it, the reputation of the debt brake will certainly suffer. So does the court. Because then it will be said that the debt brake is not suitable for times when crises are the norm. There is only one thing Karlsruhe can never demand again: a debt brake that deserves its name.
#test #political #sanity