Posted on 08/26/2025 7:20:13 AM PDT by delta7
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz does not have the ability to manage Europe’s top economy. “The welfare state that we have today can no longer be financed with what we produce in the economy,” Merz said in a recent meeting. At the same time, Merz agreed to begin sending Ukraine 9 billion euros annually in addition to all other aid.
Merz tried to claim there would “not be any increase in income tax on medium-sized companies in Germany with this federal government under my leadership.” SPD Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil disagrees, and said that middle and high-income citizens could race an increased tax burden. “I’m not satisfied with what we have achieved thus far,” the chancellor said. “It has to be more.”
Merz campaigned on a platform of fiscal responsibility. Then he left Germany’s borders open and worked to find a loophole in the Constitution to fund Ukraine endlessly without any caps. The German welfare state cost taxpayers €20.2 billion ($23.6 billion) in 2024. Public spending accounted for 49.5% of all economic output in 2024.
Lars Klingbeil stated that Germany’s federal budget will face a €30 billion shortfall by 2027. His solution is clearly to increase taxes. “Especially people with high income and high net worth have to ask themselves: What am I contributing to make this country fairer?” He added: “Most of the time, I see people with very high incomes and very large fortunes making a strong appeal to the whole country that everyone should work harder and longer. But I don’t think that does justice to the pension debate that we really need to be having in Germany.”
Diplomacy Merz_on_Ukraine_No_hope_left_for_a_diplomatic_solution_t
Germans have one of the highest tax burdens in Europe. Yet, by 2029, Germany is expecting to take on €851 billion worth of new debt. The war on the energy sector, perpetual spending on Ukraine, and open borders are crippling the German economy. German lawmakers would like to cut back on payments for citizens who spend a lifetime paying into the system.
Germany spent 14.8% more in 2024 on an annualized basis on basic income support and nursing health care to the tune of €20.2 billion. Around €11.4 billion of those funds were spent on pensioners and those unwilling to work. In 2025, the nation will spend €43 billion on the citizens’ stipend or Bürgergeld scheme that provides basic income for the unemployed (not including pensioners or those with disabilities).
Merz plans to cut spending for the Bürgergeld scheme. He plans to increase taxation on pensions, although over half of German pensioners currently receive payouts below the poverty line. Merz will place a cap on the amount welfare recipients can use toward housing. While some of these cuts are necessary, Merz fails to acknowledge the elephant in the room—YOU’RE SENDING BILLIONS PER YEAR TO A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT!
Why should the German people be forced to send 9 billion euros to a foreign government annually? The people have been forced to send public funds and soon the people will be forced to send their sons and daughters to fight a unwinnable war. Germany’s leaders have put domestic policies last in favor of globalist neocon ambitions.
The nation is already in a recession and the government continues to implement policies that are pushing the nation further into ruin.
I find it amusing the EU’s war on Russia has bankrupted the ones who thought they could bankrupt Russia. Fools.
Shutting down USAID among other things has certainly had big effects.
Metz should send over all his “migrants” to serve in the Ukie forces. After all, they already know how to use guns…
The CDU/CSU is losing support because it promised to deport a lot of migrants but can't do anything because its junior coalition partners the SPD and Greens refuse to to so.
Not only should the krauts send all their wealth to ukr, they need to send all their children there to be slaughtered as well! ukr can totally defeat the russkies , just takes more sacrifice. When they’re finished maybe someone can plant a ukr flag over the smoldering radioactive ruins.
I know more than a few Germans, and not one would pick up a gun for this woke, neo-marxist regime.
They rightly see the main war being the one on Germany’s language, people and culture from Davos/EU and globalists
Funding Ukraine is dragging all of Europe and the US down. All are drowning in debt, yet we are guilt tripped into believing that if we just give a little more, Ukraine can win...
Some sentences don’t make sense: “could race an increased tax burden”. Does that mean that they have to make more and more money to cover their taxes?
I have always said that if Europe had to actually defend itself it couldn’t afford all those socialist ideas they push.
Trump is making the entire world great again
All socialism needs is to run out of money. Don’t fight the windbag media, pull a twist and bankrupt the country fast.
Correction. Only German natives will lose welfare. The Muzzies will never lose a pfennig.
IBTS
IBTG
This makes great sense, from the perspective of thinking the Russia government will collapse, as did the USSR.
In the time of the Yeltsin government, dreams of acquiring assets lured the Europeans who have precious few assets, in the long term. I suspect Merz holds to the EU dream of a greater supra-state, the EU, controlling assets they currently do not control.
The 19th century was, in part, a tale of European empires utilizing assets from "colonies." That lure seems to persist, dressed in new garb. And the 20th was a time of those same leftover nations warring with one another, Germany and Italy along with collaborators like the Vichy and Bandera factions, against opposing allies.
This seems an extension of those times, which some think had ended.
Same reason you couldn't afford the 2% of your GDP to fund your own defense that you agreed to in 2014 as a NATO member. You just got up to 2% in January of 2024. Now it's 5%. How will you manage that Germany? And then pay for Ukraine's war as part of the EU?
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