Friday, March 29

Lower taxes so your mother dies

In economic policy there is usually a norm that is fulfilled in a radical way: when there is not enough income in taxes to support social spending, rights and benefits are cut that can make it possible to square the public accounts. Whenever you hear a political party or leader bragging about low taxes or asking for generalized reductions, you have to assume that in return there will be a reduction in public services or in some benefits that are usually those used by those who most need the protection of the State. . Cuts for the rich are cuts for the poor. Elementary math.

This week we have seen how Isabel Díaz Ayuso promoted a report on low taxes in the Community of Madrid that had been created by Daniel Lacalle, the anarcho-liberal guru with more failures than the driving school test of a first-timer, and who had spread the pamphlet of the Venezuelan worm a rentier in the Barrio de Salamanca with dressing rooms that have more square meters than a block in Lavapiés. The party’s report once again served to spread the liberal fallacy that low taxes raise more and activate the economy without the need to reduce public services. The problem appears when the propaganda has to be confronted with the reality of who does use public services. The Community of Madrid later announced that it was reducing the frequency of Metro trains by 10% due to the high cost of electricity. That is the logical consequence of its policies, it deteriorates the public transport service used by the poorest and most vulnerable to spend less and thus be able to lower taxes on the richest, who do not ride the subway. That is why Madrid is always a little better for them, because the resources derived from the rates are invested in what they use and need and the cuts are made in those services intended for the most vulnerable. It is normal for the rich to adore Ayuso, it is not so normal for those who need robust public services to do so. The battle over the tax account is being won by crushing.

Sooner or later you will experience the consequences of this fiscal dynamic. Each and every citizen at some point in your life is going to need a treatment, a test, an operation or a hospital stay that you would not be able to pay for if it were not covered by the portfolio of basic public health services. It is the law of life. You will need it, you will see how some family member will need it. It may be happening at this very moment. It is not a rhetorical device. It is a fact. Public health serves so that when you receive the blow of a diagnosis of cancer, or some type of disease with lethal capacity, you do not also have to worry about how you are going to pay for the treatment. There is no added anguish about the suffering and regret of receiving this news and the uncertainty about the future of the disease.

Not having to think about the chances of survival due to the zeros that exist in your checking account is possible thanks to the income statement. Yours, and that of those who have the most who pay less every day thanks to the depleting policies of the public that Ayuso defends and that have become the fundamental nucleus of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s policies. It may seem like a distant horizon that makes public health not provide expensive treatments to cure serious illnesses, but it is a path that is approaching with the toxic discourse against taxes. It is not an impossible situation, because it has already happened, the Popular Party systematically refused to include the healing treatment for hepatitis due to its high cost and during the struggle to achieve its inclusion, until it was achieved, many people died waiting for. These days my mother is receiving state-of-the-art drug treatment for cancer that costs 4,000 euros a month. We could not have paid for it even by pooling the resources of the whole family. She has a chance thanks to public services, taxes, cooperation among equals. There is a lot of rhetorical embellishment with the fiscal discourse, but at the end of the road there is a crude but accurate statement: lowering taxes is enough for your mother to die.



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