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From the army to health insurance premiums: the councilors were generous at the summer session – to the displeasure of Federal Councilor Ueli Maurer.
The wallets of the National Councilors were very loose in this summer session, as if nothing had happened in the last two Corona years. Both councils have decided on a budget increase for the army, which could cost an additional four billion francs from 2030 – annually.
In order to further reduce health insurance premiums, the National Council has granted an additional CHF 2.2 billion – also every year. The National Council has earmarked CHF 3.2 billion for new climate protection measures over a period of ten years.
We have the debt brake, nobody wants to pay more taxes – and yet you decide on spending churning.
All of this has not taken into account that the federal government will incur considerable additional costs for those seeking protection from Ukraine as a result of the Ukraine war. For the slightly more than 50,000 refugees at the moment, it is assumed that there are over a billion per year. If even more people come to Switzerland, the expenses will continue to rise.
All in all, the federal budget will be burdened with additional costs of more than six billion Swiss francs per year in ten years. That doesn’t work, Finance Minister Ueli Maurer now sums up SRF News: “You’ve completely lost the connection to money. We have the debt brake, nobody wants to pay more taxes – and yet you decide to spend continuously.”
Legend:
During the annual deliberations on the federal budget in the winter session of the federal parliament, there are signs of tough battles over the coming years.
key stone
In two weeks, Maurer will have to present the budget for next year and the financial plan for the three following years to the Federal Council. Everything will be very tight, the federal treasurer announces: “We are just about to finish such a budget for 2023 and can comply with the debt brake with all the tricks. For later it looks relatively bad. We have to clean up high deficits, otherwise we won’t be able to comply with the debt brake.”
Gone with “Tischlein deck dich”
“Clean up deficits”: This means that significant cutbacks have to be made elsewhere as soon as Parliament’s resolutions start to take effect. “Some of that can be pushed back on the timeline. Then the areas that are not tied are examined. »
So education, development aid, agriculture or the army. “But you can’t save that much there. It is probably best to implement it if we demand certain cuts everywhere. That is possible and will probably be necessary.”
Legend:
It was an expensive session. Parliament has approved additional spending of several billion Swiss francs. Finance Minister Maurer is planning linear cuts in all federal spending if Parliament does not come back to its decisions.
key stone
For the upgrading of the army and even more reductions in health insurance premiums, all other areas of the federal budget would have to bleed. Because on the income side, the Ukraine war and the associated inflation are likely to result in two opposing tendencies.
In the case of value added tax, Maurer expects additional income due to the higher prices. In the case of corporate income taxes, the opposite is true: “Here I expect the revenue curve to flatten out.”
We revel in abundance as I look around.
For Maurer it is clear that the new willingness to spend in Parliament cannot work: “You cannot afford it, and it is not necessary. We revel in abundance when I look around.”
And so the Finance Minister appealed to the National Council and the Council of States to go over the books again with their plans: “Set the table, I snap my fingers and everything is on the table – those times are over. We’ll have to tighten our belts and figure out how to spend the money.”