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If the SPD Prime Minister has his way, a Corona Soli should save the statutory health insurance.

This emerges from a draft resolution for the meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on Wednesday.

The federal government should check, it says under point 10, how a tax-financed stabilization of the contributions could look, so that the "additional costs caused by the corona pandemic in the health care system do not have to be cushioned unilaterally by the legally insured"

A solidarity surcharge is mentioned as a possibility.

The likelihood that this proposal will appear in the final document on Wednesday is close to zero.

The Union was astonished.

"We strongly reject such a solidarity surcharge," said Andreas Jung, the deputy chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

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It has already been ensured that statutory health insurance will be further strengthened.

According to current planning, the tax subsidy for 2021 will not only be increased by five billion euros, but even by almost eight billion euros.

Increase in planned new debt

But it is not only in the Union camp that one should not be very enthusiastic about the advance of the SPD Prime Minister.

It is also difficult to imagine that the SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz would like to be associated with such an irritating topic before the federal election.

He much prefers to refer to the abolition of the old solidarity surcharge for large parts of the population on January 1, 2021. The discussion about a new solidarity surcharge would only disturb.

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A corona solos would also not match another key statement by the Federal Minister of Finance: The state can do everything that is necessary to combat the corona crisis.

There is no shortage of money.

Scholz also wants to convey this message with the revised federal budget for 2021, which the members of the Bundestag will discuss in the coming days.

The budget titles listed on 262 pages add up to 160 billion euros in additional expenditure.

The original version from September only provided for new debt of 96 billion euros.

But that was before the skyrocketing number of infections and renewed restrictions at the beginning of November.

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The increase in the planned new debt is primarily due to the bridging aid for small and medium-sized companies, which rose from two billion euros to 39.5 billion euros.

"Since the Covid-19 pandemic continues to be very dynamic, poses major challenges for many companies and at least severely restricts their business activities, bridging aid III must be backed by adequate budgetary funds," says the proposal from the Federal Ministry of Finance.

The aid is estimated up to and including June 2021.

New debts not only due to corona

Another ten billion euros are reserved for expenditure of all kinds with which the pandemic can be combated, just under 2.7 billion euros for the vaccine, for the cheapest sale of FFP2 masks 2.5 billion euros are earmarked, with another billion euros the federal government is arming itself against loan defaults under the KfW special program for companies.

So far, in the event that the default guarantees that the federal government has given the banks, only 400 million euros were earmarked.

The professional sports clubs can expect to bridge the corona with 200 million euros next year.

Not all of the debt that has been added since the budget was first drawn up in September can be attributed to the latest pandemic.

The Autobahn AG is to receive a further 400 million euros, another 250 million euros are available for the procurement of the Eurofighter weapon system and 50 million euros are earmarked for the future fund for the automotive industry in 2021.

The budget titles, which now have lower euro amounts than in September, are rare.

This includes grants for measures to maintain and promote industrial culture.

"Well below 200 billion euros"

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How much of the additional billions of euros will actually be needed in the coming year is another question.

So far, Finance Minister Scholz has done one thing above all with the significantly increased new debt, which he wants to get approved by the Bundestag: He is building ahead.

A double strategy can be identified: In the first step, Scholz is making it clear for the coming year that no matter how long the pandemic lasts, the federal government will not leave anyone alone.

If the federal government does not use all credit authorizations in the end, Scholz can present himself in the second step as a good housekeeper who, despite all the challenges, handles citizens' money carefully.

This approach to budgeting is already evident this year.

Through two supplementary budgets, Scholz had the Bundestag provide loans totaling 218 billion euros in the spring.

It is now clear that this is nowhere near needed.

In government circles, one assumes “well below 200 billion euros”.

Depending on what will be booked this year and what will be booked next year, it could amount to new debt of 160 billion euros as early as 2020.

Scholz will know how to use this for himself in the election campaign.

The Union has no choice but to support this policy.

"The expenditure of 70 billion euros requested by the federal government is necessary," said Eckhardt Rehberg, budget spokesman for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group.

That doesn't make him happy, but in view of the “continued dynamic pandemic development”, more money should be made available for economic aid, the labor market and the health sector.

Opposition politician Otto Fricke of the FDP fears a psychological effect in view of the lively juggling with historically high new debt figures.

"You can also get used to debt," he said.

This year has shown how quickly three-digit billions can lose their horror in politics.