President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) suggested that deputies and senators reduce parliamentary amendments and that businesspeople “who live on subsidies” give up resources to help balance the economy. The statement was made during an interview with RedeTV recorded on Wednesday (6) and occurs amid debates over a spending cut proposal that must be sent to Congress.
In a rhetorical question, Lula questioned whether parliamentarians would be willing to reduce the value of amendments to “contribute to fiscal adjustment”. “The question I ask is the following: will Congress accept reducing the amendments from deputies and senators to contribute to the fiscal adjustment that I am going to make? Because it’s not just taking it from the government’s budget”, said the PT member.
Lula also suggested that the cuts harm the poor. “It turns out that we can no longer play, every time you have to cut something, on the shoulders of the people most in need,” said the president.
The president also mentioned businesspeople “who live off government subsidies” as possible volunteers in the search for balance in the accounts. “Will businesspeople who live off government subsidies accept giving up a little subsidy so that we can balance the Brazilian economy? I don’t know if they will accept it”, said Lula in the interview.
Lula also spoke about the “speculative greed of the market”. “I know the speculative greed of the market. And I, sometimes, think that the market acts with a sense of hypocrisy with the very large contribution of the Brazilian press to try to create confusion in the minds of society”, said the PT member.
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Spending cut proposal expected to be finalized this week
The government indicated that it will close this week the spending cut package that has been discussed in recent weeks and that ministers have already been notified of the impacts on their respective portfolios.
The expectation is that an announcement about the spending cut will take place this Thursday afternoon (7) or Friday (8). There is still no information whether the package will be released before or after conversations with presidents Arthur Lira (PP-AL), of the Chamber, and Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), of the Senate.
The cuts will be sent to Congress in the form of a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) and a Complementary Law Project (PLP).
