A government used to take out loans when they urgently needed to finance something and didn't have the money.

At best, she used the funds to finance investments from which future taxpayers also benefited.

The traffic light coalition now wants to fall back on credit authorizations from previous years, i.e. money that was already missing in 2021 and 2020, in order to secure billions for the coming years - and at the same time to be able to comply with the debt brake on paper.

Manfred Schaefers

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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If it gets away with it, it will be able to borrow much more on the capital market for a long time than the debt rule in the Basic Law provides for normal times. SPD, Greens and FDP go to great lengths to justify this with the burden of the Corona years. Their arguments are not really convincing.

The new alliance is in a hurry.

On Thursday, the Bundestag approved the second supplementary budget for 2021.

The Federal Court of Auditors had registered constitutional concerns.

He warned the SPD, Greens and FDP to at least take more time.

The coalition wanted nothing to do with it.

The Ministry of Finance, headed by Christian Lindner, also saw imminent danger.

Otherwise, important funding programs could not be continued.

Anyone who wanted to build in a particularly climate-friendly manner or renovate their house energetically experienced their blue miracle this week.

The funding program was stopped - not the supplementary budget.

Lindner wants to push the new debt from year to year.

That's why the whole operation is there at the start.

It's either like it was then - or it's not

If there should be hope in the coalition: quickly decided is quickly forgotten, that is naïve.

The Union wants to go before the Federal Constitutional Court against this trick, which turns corona deficits, Simsalabim, into climate credits.

The FDP defiantly refers to the year 2020. The CDU/CSU and SPD acted similarly.

But at that time, Christian Dürr, at the time Lindner's deputy in the parliamentary group, today its chairman, castigated their actions as unconstitutional in a way that is rarely heard in the Bundestag.

At the same time, it is said that things are a bit different.

But it can't be both: it's like it was then, or it's not like it was then.

In fact, during their time in government, the Union and the SPD channeled almost 30 billion euros into the energy and climate fund.

The traffic light partners not only quickly double the amount that they push there, but also change the booking rule.

That doesn't make it any better, on the contrary: the debt brake is treated as if the money had already been spent, even if the credit authorization is used much later.

The allocation of the loans is in vain

Although the law is not yet in force, the Ministry of Finance has already reported an increased deficit for 2021.

There is no such thing in tax estimation.

New laws are only considered once they have been passed.

And every entrepreneur who would come up with the idea of ​​claiming later expenses in anticipation of a new regulation as a tax reduction would have problems with the financial administration.

In the Treasury they don't take it too seriously.

Deficits are changed retrospectively and anticipatory at the same time.

And not just for the past year, but en passant also for 2020. This increases the scope of the coalition massively.

The previous government and thus the Union will be allocated more debt accordingly.

This can only be defended against before the Federal Constitutional Court.

If loans are booked separately from actual events in the federal budget, the political assignment is in vain.

That shouldn't be the case in a democracy.

The new partners are blocking each other in tax policy: the SPD and the Greens wanted to burden the rich more heavily, the FDP wanted to make companies in international competition better off.

Each of the three parties wanted to relieve the burden on low- and middle-income citizens.

Now none of that happens.

Minor changes are intended to distract from the major standstill: These include the announced super write-off and the expansion of loss carryback.

Neither is of much use in economic crisis years if Lindner does not succeed in drilling out the tight specifications.

Because there used to be too many opportunities to pile up credit on credit, the reformed debt rule is restrictive.

From next year onwards, the FDP boss wants to comply with them again.

This obviously doesn't work without tricks if you don't want to increase taxes or cut spending.

Lindner plays risky.

If the Federal Constitutional Court intervenes, he ends up standing there naked.