By Alexandre Garcia*
(Opinion) You must wonder why the Brazilian stock market falls, why there is so much concern in the economic market in general.
Now we have statements by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, complaining about interest rates – as is known, interest is what is charged for renting money, capital.
On the stock exchange, those who invest in companies are concerned because of a speech by the President of the Republic himself, calling the State’s spending limit “stupidity”, that is, spending with its money, to support the Brazilian State.
And here comes the new minister of the new Ministry of Management (formerly it was called the Ministry of Administration, but now it is more beautiful to talk about “management”) also saying that a spending ceiling cannot be allowed, speaking of the limit that is imposed on the State spending, which should be in the service of the nation.
We pay taxes. Every time we buy something, every time we pay direct taxes, we are supporting the Brazilian State to provide us with good public services. We need to be aware of this, this is citizenship.
The people own the State, the boss of the State, the owner of the nation, the owner of the country. But the new ideology, which has not worked anywhere in the world, says that the main thing is the State, not the people.
That is terrible. People from the economic area are down there and the agro, which is the country’s locomotive, is very worried, because the new Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira, went so far as to tell the social movements that “come up to the ministry so that everything can happen.”
He was heading to the MST. What will happen? President Lula da Silva told the indigenous peoples, in his speech, that the injustices against them will be revoked. What does that mean? Would it have to do with the time frame that is already in the Supreme Court? All of this is worrying.
The new government could continue the works of the previous one, but there is a kind of revanchism taking place without acknowledging victories and advances. The new Minister of Social Security, Carlos Lupi, from the PDT, Brizola‘s offspring, who receives a tremendous budget, is already talking about carrying out an “anti-reform of Social Security.”
The Minister of Management wants to end the spending limit. So, the more the State spends, the more the taxpayer has to contribute, because money doesn’t come from heaven, it comes from everyone’s work. If you think you don’t pay income tax because you earn little, know that you are paying tax on everything you buy, which is more expensive because the tax is included there.
On Tuesday, another part of this good inheritance, the blessed inheritance that the new government received, came out. We had a record in the trade balance, a surplus of US$62.3 billion.
What does that mean? It is an ease, a comfort when paying external bills. We have an international foreign reserve of US$320 billion. So, the current government does not receive a charge from the previous one, but a favorable inheritance that it could take advantage of. But it seems that the goal is just to spend more, so much so that they made 37 ministries instead of 22.
*Columns on national politics published Sunday through Thursday. The columnist’s texts do not necessarily express the opinion of Gazeta do Povo.
Content edited by Marcio Antonio Campos
With information from Gazeta do Povo