Germany reveals 2004 budget,EU and ECB hates it, social programs cuts.

German Finance Minister Hans Eichel revealed his budget proposal for 2004 this week, but the head of the European Central Bank warns that Germany is charting the wrong course.

Germany's Finance Ministry presented the first comprehensive draft of its €251 billion ($287 billion) federal fiscal budget for 2004 on Thursday. Under the budget, new debts would total €23.8 million and investments would make up €24.8 million, bringing it in line with Germany's constitution, which requires that investments must exceed deficit spending.

The budget would achieve that balance through cuts to benefits for government employees, cuts in subsidies and the elimination of some tax write-offs.

Government payments to the pension and welfare systems will each be slashed by €2 billion, and the coal industry is slated to lose €550 million in government subsidies. The government is also planning to dramatically reduce Christmas bonuses for current and retired civil servants and will eliminate the so-called "vacation bonus," which provides the equivalent of a 14th month of pay. But the budget cuts will also hit the pockets of non-government workers -- especially those who rely on tax write-offs for commuting, which will also be cut. Another provision in the German budget that provides subsidies for first-time homeowners is also being scrapped.

The budget proposal is based on Germany's economy growing by 2 percent in 2004, a level it has been unable to achieve so far in 2003. In 2002, the country exceeded the 3 percent ceiling on deficit spending cemented in the European pact ensuring the stability of the euro. It is expected to do the same this year and again in 2004.

European Central Bank President Wim Duisenberg admonished German leaders on Thursday to stick to their fiscal pledges. He said he was worried that the 2004 budget proposed by the German finance minister earlier in the day would again force Germany to violate the European Union Stability and Growth Pact. The pact stipulates that euro zone members must keep their budget deficits below 3 percent of gross domestic product.

"The direction [Germany] is going concerns me. [It] means debts will increase, although they should decrease. That is what was agreed in the Stability and Growth Pact," Duisenberg told the German public television broadcaster ZDF.

Duisenberg said the most important aim in the current economic situation in Germany was to gain consumers' and investors' trust. And the way to do that was for the government to live up to agreements it had made, like remaining in line with the Stability Pact.

Duisenberg was not alone in his concerns. European Union Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Pedro Solbes warned Germany on Tuesday not to neglect EU budgetary guidelines in the current debate over tax reform. He said Germany could not count on support from the EU if the German government decided to cut taxes and thus failed to stay within the Stability Pact.

Germany's economy has been stagnating since 2001. Unemployment reached 4.45 million in May and consumer confidence remains low.

The government is expected to call for a pushing forward of tax cuts planned for 2005 to next year, but it will have to reduce spending in other areas to offset a loss of €18 billion in revenues and stay within the euro zone budget deficit limit. Ministers and coalition party leaders will be discussing the plans at a retreat scheduled to take place this weekend.

But opposition leaders have already attacked Eichel's budget plans. His growth assumptions were unrealistic, according to the deputy head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz. Hesse's Premier Roland Koch, also CDU, told the newspaper Die Welt his party would prevent homeowner's allowances from being cut when the proposal reached the Bundestag, Germany's upper legislative chamber.

Nor is Koch's threat empty -- the budget can only be implemented if the opposition-controlled Bundestag approves it.

Maybe they will have to cut back on their 6 weeks of vacation, increase their maximum 35 hour work week to an unheard of burden of actualy having to work a 40 hour week.

Try an average of 50/70 hours a week and vacation time that can't be taken due to the work load.

Try having to work, for the same company for twenty years to finally get a max. of 5 weeks vacation. Try having to pay part or most of your own medical insurance, if you are lucky enough to have medical insurance. When you can compete with this, and still be the greatest nation in the world, then I'll see if I can spend a few minutes to hear your latest whine.

Until then, you have made you bed taken advantage of your system and made it bankrupt, so live with it and quit whining. I really don't give a sh*t about the mess you've made for youself.

If you are suggesting that working 50-70 hours a week or getting 5 weeks vacation after 20 years is not worth the price of the economic freedom enjoyed in America you are wrong.

The average German must decide while in high school IF HE OR SHE can qualify for higher education. Most must accept a trade and work their whole life in that trade. If you think they have a good deal cause they get to take time off you are dead wrong.

The reason that people come to America is to escape the crap of a life as a member of the lower caste system as created by the "leaders" of Europe. If you think that the average German has a home that is in excess of 2000 sq ft or that their vacations are spent in anything but camp grounds you must be joking.

Bring an East German to America today and they would kill their boss for the lies told to them for 50 years.

German society is really broken down into four definite groups.

The elite university group are the ones who got educated and get the management jobs in government, media, education, banking, and business. They control the direction of the country, and force-feed everyone (via the media). These people have their own methods of retirement which have nothing to do with the state-run retirement system. And rarely are these people out of a job for long.

The green group are a bunch of folks who have become environmentalists and everything relates to them in green. They are mostly educated and understand little if anything about business.

The bottom group are people who simply make enough money to survive and thats it. They never get ahead. They are usually on some government program that can't really help them except it puts a few more Euros in their pocket. They received little education....most can at least read....but they understand nothing about politics, retirement or business.

And finally, the working group, which makes up 60 percent of the country. They are educated strictly in the area of their expertise throughout highschool. They are force-fed by the elite on the nightly news. In terms of history classes in high school...they get barely two or three years. Their real political power throughout the entire country are the unions. The unions can wheel and deal...and this is why they have 35-38 hour work-weeks. A growing number of this group are getting ahead in life by working on the black (doing a neighbors roof for money under the table).

The business sector in Germany is screaming about the entire situation. The vacation periods, the amount of trouble in getting rid of an employee, the 35-hour weeks....all of these add up to a problem in competing. If the Euro was up around 1 to 1 for the dollar...they could have a better chance of selling items in the US....but thats not happening. Massive business failure is slowly coming around...with several bignames in the past 3 years showing the results of the system. And yet....the media controlled by the elite simply skips over the problems and results. No one wants to fix anything.

...and don't forget most of the 'bottom group' is able to count to ten, add and subtract...some of them even got hold of the secret of multiplicating and dividing which is fiercely defended by the secret green commie nazi elites that rule germany and most of old europe.

and you're just jealous that america's elite controlled media has such a hard time trying to buy up europe's elite controlled media.

you fight uninformation with copy-and-pasting propaganda...i won't judge american society because i have never been to america long enough to actually get an impression. so i'll just shut up because i wouldn't know what i was talking about.

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