Posted on 05/11/2017 8:01:04 PM PDT by Olog-hai
With Germany raking in more taxes due to strong economic performance, the leader of its liberal party has suggested state officials are enriching themselves at the cost of the taxpayer.
“The greed of the state has taken on kleptocratic characteristics,” Christian Lindner, head of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) told Handelsblatt on Wednesday.
A kleptocracy is a form of government in which officials corruptly use public funds for personal gain.
“The yearly tax intake of the state is set to be €100 billion higher in 2020 than this year, if we don’t act. For the FDP, it is clear that we need a turnaround in tax policy,” said the head of the party that fell out of the Bundestag (German parliament) in 2013. “In light of the extra intake, we can have tax relief of €30 billion or €40 billion a year until the end of the decade. Only when the FDP are in the Bundestag will the taxpayer have an ally in politics.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.de ...
We have the same here, but they’re also called the Democratic Party. Democrats get elected to pass pork bills and rake in cash, nothing much else.
[Yawn!]
The article provides absolutely no information on officials "enriching themselves."
Rather, it cites a single accusation ("Kleptocracy!"), and then leaves it at that, totally unsupported.
It is not enough to point to exorbitant tax rates, or govt. bloat - to fulfill the definition of "kleptocracy," it must be shown that individual govt. officials are personally enriching themselves.
Quod erat non demonstrandum!
Regards,
I saw yesterday where the German Finance Minister was grinning away and admitting by 2021...they’d have an EXTRA 54-billion Euro more than expected....so he wanted a tax credit deal worked up after the national election in the fall. He didn’t say it’d be a check or such. Some suggestions say that it’ll be a reduction in the sales tax for certain items (baby diapers, etc).
Immediately after that, the opposition parties (Green and SPD) stood up and said that it’d be better if the money stayed with the government and was spent on infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc).
If you do the math, out of 82 million in population...the yearly check would only be about 185 Euro back to every single person.
They can just send all the money to Greece, because with insane EU policies the Greek crisis will be never-ending.
Elections coming up, FDP trying to sound somehow relevant, same old, same old...
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