Germany's social budget has grown from 966 billion to 1,162 billion euros during this legislative period.
Even without new spending decisions after the election, the sum of welfare state benefits would rise to 1,278 billion euros by 2025.
So it shows a list of the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs.
This should actually be an occasion to finally raise the question of efficiency: How can it actually be that social policy is apparently not making any progress despite tremendously rising spending - at least not if one takes the tone and content of the actually existing debate on the welfare state as a yardstick? The exchange of blows between the top candidates in the television duel showed the problem only one more time on the basis of the subject of child poverty.
Of course, the Greens and the SPD are free to declare an increase in social spending for children in unemployed and low-income households by 10 billion euros a year as urgent. But if the social budget is more than 1,000 billion euros: Isn't it permissible to ask what reallocation can be used to finance this? At least the candidates Baerbock and Scholz are obviously dissatisfied with what the welfare state has achieved so far with those 1,000 billion euros.
In fact, it is now almost taken for granted that such promises can justify a “necessity” of higher taxes. Seen in this way, CDU candidate Armin Laschet has shown remarkable steadfastness in the debate: by defending the planned end of the solidarity surcharge of 10 billion euros and also doubting that higher social transfers are at all suitable for integration into society and the world of work to promote.
It will be interesting to see how long the Union will maintain such steadfastness. This is not a minor matter. Because at its core it is about the fundamental understanding of the state: The policy of the past few years was designed to downgrade economic freedom in relation to the welfare state to the residual size. The SPD and the Greens now obviously want to increase the pace on this path.