Kommentar: Reiche sollte im Kabinett gegen Klingbeils Steuerpläne stimmen
Die Wirtschaftsministerin legt den Finger in die Wunde beim Reformplan des Finanzministers. Ohne den Ausgleich der kalten Progression ist die Steuerreform ein Täuschungsmanöver.
The aim of politics ought to be to make people's lives better day by day, as former SPD Minister-President Johannes Rau once said. It is rather unfortunate that the current SPD leader and Finance Minister, Lars Klingbeil, inadvertently reminds us of this through a letter from the headed by Katherina Reiche (CDU) Ministry of Economics.
The Merz cabinet is putting forward Lars Klingbeil's draft for a tax reform today, and if the coalition truly wants to improve people's lives, it could have avoided the request from Katherina Reiche's office to at least balance the cold progression. This may be perceived by the Chancellor as a disruption to the coalition's harmony.
However, in the past decade, all Finance Ministers have always balanced the cold progression and adjusted income tax to inflation, thus making higher taxes only applicable to higher incomes. Not Lars Klingbeil. In the budget, there is no money for it despite anticipated tax revenues in 2026. There is no talk of real savings anymore.
Meanwhile, Germany grows, not in prosperity, but in the public service. The federal government continues to build more offices while people wait for their lives to improve.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
