The entire discussion about the fiscal package has reached the dimensions of a neurosis due to the horrors contained in various scenarios, some seemingly designed to induce a fear whose denial would make any other plundering more digestible by comparison with the greater evil.
Inflation of scenarios with water in the mouth
Only in this category can the scenario of a tax on any bank transaction be rationally included.
Why this tax would be completely wrong has already been explained by many economists. In short, the effect would most likely not be an easy and immense gain for the budget, but, on the contrary, an unprecedented revitalization of cash payments leading to another boost to tax evasion.
- Deadlock in negotiations on fiscal measures: Nicușor Dan's advisor confirms that the tax on bank transactions is on the table
- BNR advisor on the tax on bank transactions: Nonsense! When you don't collect 9 billion euros a year and don't touch this huge theft, it's outrageous
- Tax on bank transactions revolts everyone, from economy to society. Risks on all levels
There is also the possibility that it was initially designed as a tax for banks, therefore a sort of abortion.
Some fundamentally correct ideas have also been circulated. For example, a healthcare system used by everyone and paid for by only 35% cannot be viable. 65% of citizens are insured by law, non-payers, exceptions that consume but do not contribute.
And no, the idea of "contributing all your life, now to benefit" is not correct when it comes to health insurance. Simply paying for years of RCA will not exempt you from paying the police when you retire, due to extended contributions.
Beyond the specific issues that have heated spirits, the general image is one of groping and improvisation. What I understand everyone wants is to cover the 30 billion that need to be saved, 1/3 from tax increases and 2/3 from cuts in all kinds of expenses. But everyone wants it in their own way.
It is not at all clear how many of the scenarios discussed and leaked in the press, perhaps as trial balloons, have some figures behind them, some impact simulations.
We can only hope that they exist and it is not as it seems, meaning everyone speaks as they please, following their own whims and inspirations. And this lingering state, because we are not in a correct political logic.
- List of fiscal reform measures: VAT and fuel excise increases, taxes on social media incomes and inheritances. Cuts in bonuses and layoffs
- Proposal for more budget money: A flat tax on any money movement in the economy
Romania has been with an interim government since May 6, for over a month now. Thursday evening, interim Prime Minister Predoiu appeared on TV and practically begged for a government within a maximum of 10 days because the powers of the Cabinet he leads are very limited, not only unable to take new measures but also unable to stop some programs that consume huge and useless public funds.
We are on edge. In less than a month, the European Commission is expecting a concrete fiscal recovery plan, based on which it will start or not the procedure to suspend European funds.
It Can't Be Done Without a Prime Minister
We have had an acting president for two weeks. Wasted with what Mr. Nicușor Dan has repeatedly called technical discussions. There is nothing technical, for God's sake! Technical are some numbers they had on the table from the beginning, from which they started, and the impact simulations that each solution should have. It's strictly about political decisions.
You have a situation, what political decision do you take to correct it? That's what it's about. Governance is a political act; if it were technical, the government would consist of technicians appointed through a competition. Maybe some think it would be better, but certainly nowhere in the world is it like that.
And political decisions must be conceived and assumed primarily by the one who is to implement them. That is, by the prime minister who names the government and signs every act of the Cabinet.
Whether we like it or not, in our constitutional architecture, the prime minister is probably the most important official, more important than the president himself. He holds the reins. He answers. He makes the decisions of the Cabinet; his resignation means the fall of the entire government.
You cannot negotiate a governance program without having a prime minister at the head of the table. He leads the executive game, negotiates with the parties, not the president. It's not the president's job to solve the deficit; the president's job is to appoint a prime minister to concretely negotiate the program and team to obtain a majority, investiture, and start the fight against the deficit.
In fact, I've said it before, the name of the prime minister is the elephant in the negotiation room; without him, you cannot move forward seriously. And the name of the prime minister is Nicușor Dan's business.
Until he exists and the 10-day deadline for investiture is not running, until someone sits at the head of the table and the countdown for the early elections begins, putting pressure on the political actors, this dilly-dallying will continue.
And the parties know that they are not the ones who will be held accountable, because collective responsibility is theoretical. President Dan will be held accountable, who once again gets lost in micromanagement and probably thinks he is negotiating the budget of the Capital as a mayor.