Budget cuts, tax increases, and an increased deficit: These are just some of the problems with the state budget set to be brought for a first reading in the Knesset Thursday. The political price for supporting such a budget will only increase as it is brought to its second and third hearings in November.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
This is a government that will do anything to survive, including throwing money indiscriminately at anyone who asks. The budget funds are unprecedented, leaving nothing much to fight the coronavirus pandemic, adapt the education system to current morbidity levels, or deal with collapsing government-owned hospitals across the country.
Across the generations, all any Finance Ministry worker ever wanted was a submissive finance minister, one who is led by others and adopts every plan, no matter how crazy, as long as the numbers are effortlessly punched in. After the wasteful spending of so many funds on the Arab sector and all the other parties, this budget will raise taxes, both directly and indirectly, left and right. Pensions are in, soldiers are out. COVID? It doesn't exist. Not in the health budget, nor in education. Businesses are closing and reducing their activity, yet this budget makes no mention of compensation.
There is no framework for unpaid leave. In fact, there's no framework at all. Outside of politicians and their close associates, all Israelis should pray this budget fails to make it through the Knesset. And we haven't even touched on the Arrangements Law.
As Knesset speaker, Likud MK Yariv Levin should have thrown the pile of papers placed on his desk in the face of the lawmaker who submitted them. Weighty laws, large reforms, including on controversial issues, relegated to nothing more than a line in a thick book, to be voted on by coalition members with the wave of a hand without any discussion and absent any understanding of the repercussions. Nor will any of this be presented in its full context because, after all, what does the Religious Ministry's kashrut reform have to do with a line in the Arrangements Law? Doesn't such a law demand in-depth discussion? Not for this government, which has one thing only – money – on its mind.
Government stability may be the top priority of the coalition, but why would the speaker fail to defend the honor of the Knesset and allow this farce to proceed? Instead of vetoing the move, he too caved in. His subservience to the government already sparked sharp criticism from the High Court of Justice, when on the matter of the division of committees, he chose to sit on the sidelines and do nothing.
While this should have earned him a warning, the Arrangements Law proves he hasn't learned a thing. Knesset speakers have been accused in the past of serving as government collaborators instead of Knesset leaders. This was particularly true when Benjamin Netanyahu was present and the speaker was a Likud party member.
The Knesset appears poised to pass the budget. This is a government that is willing to pay, and how. They will pay the coalition, Arab members of the opposition, and anyone else who will enable their survival. All one can do is pray that passing the budget proves less harmful than failing to pass it.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
