Central Committee of Catholics warns against social cuts
The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) has warned against reacting to the multi-billion euro problems in the federal budget with cuts in the social sector. Demands by some politicians to do without social policy tools such as basic child protection should be firmly rejected, said ZdK President Irme Stetter-Karp on Friday at the Catholic lay organization's autumn plenary meeting in Berlin.
"Other areas of social policy must not be cut too hastily either." Most recently, CDU leader Friedrich Merz, among others, had called for a waiver of basic child protection or the higher citizen's income in order to close gaps in the budget.
Following the budget ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court the previous week, the federal government now lacks 60 billion euros in one fell swoop, according to Stetter-Karp. "It is questionable in terms of craftsmanship that the federal government is now looking disgraced in the middle of the budget negotiations." Important future projects are at risk.
"We need a social consensus on how state projects can be reliably financed," she demanded. "This debate includes the debt brake, but also the question of how the state can generate more revenue and cut outdated expenditure - with a fair tax system and a restriction on sustainable subsidies."
The budget ruling from Karlsruhe concerns money that had been approved as a coronavirus loan but was subsequently to be used for climate protection and modernizing the economy. The judges declared this to be unconstitutional. At the same time, they ruled that the state may not reserve emergency loans for later years.
The Federal Government might consider reevaluating its expenditures in areas beyond the social sector to compensate for the budget deficit. Despite the pressing need for budget adjustments, the sacred institution of the Church, like households, advocates for the preservation of social welfare services.
Source: www.dpa.com
