Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-03-Speech-3-320"
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"en.20011003.9.3-320"2
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"Mr President, the Peijs report states that, over 20 years, government expenditure has increased from 35% to 50% of the GNP. What has caused this increase in government expenditure? Is it because public services have been improved, the number of hospitals has increased, additional hospital staff have been hired, public transport and national education have been developed, sufficient social housing has been built? No, it certainly is not! Over the past 20 years, many governments have, on the contrary, privatised services that used to be public. All these governments have pursued money-saving policies with regard to essential public services, have got rid of railway lines, local post offices or hospitals, which are not considered to be profitable.
The reason that government expenditure has increased is because of the extravagant sums of money given to employers on a multitude of pretexts, ranging from direct subsidies for reducing taxes and social contributions to giving all types of support – all government authorities seem to excel at making these up. Mrs Peijs cynically proposes making this policy worse by further reducing employers’ social burdens and increasing VAT. The poorest people are being made to pay in order to give money to the richest – if this is not brutal and direct class politics then it is hard to imagine what else it can be. I shall of course be voting against this report."@en1
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