translated from Spanish: DEPUTY RN Ximena Ossandón by increase of 50% in solidarity pension: “I do not think the Government dare go to the Constitutional Court”

National Renewal Deputy Ximena Ossandón did not backtrack on the indication she presented yesterday in the Chamber of Deputies to raise basic pensions by 50 percent, above the government proposal that readjusts them by 20 per cent, all within the framework of the discussion of the Budgets Act 2020
“The Government must understand that pensions are rubbish and that when a country is sick or in crisis, efforts must go beyond what is possible. Let’s have a more humane, people-centered policy again. Sometimes when you make social bets you can lose yourself in finances, but you win in dignity and respect for people. Solidarity is a value that Chile has forgotten in recent times and that is urgently needed to restore,” he explained.
Although the Board of the Chamber of Deputies declared the legislator’s initiative inadmissible because it affected the public finances by increasing fiscal spending, which is the President’s own matter, the chamber was requested to decide this point. This aspect was voted on, the room decided by 74 votes to be admissible and the substance of the indication was approved with 125 votes in favour, 1 against and 2 abstentions.
“A society that aspires to be fair must necessarily ensure decent and minimal social conditions for all its inhabitants. That’s expensive. It’s true. But if we don’t secure that, we’ve failed. If there are people winning 107,000, it’s an immoral society and we’re just not making society. The state must invest everything it can to solve that,” Ms RN argued.
The director of Budgets, Rodrigo Cerda, also opposed the initiative arguing that “the only increase in 20% of the basic pension implies US$600 million and with this initiative is increasing by US$1 billion spending, amount that we do not have and that is impossible financing with low growth.”
Ossandón replied to the Government, arguing that “the logic that everything is economic does not stand any longer. What is not profitable economically, can be good in the human and can be gained in other aspects that will eventually allow us to recover the social investment that we are making. In addition, it is time to tax on the financial system because it is shown that in Chile the reduction of taxes on large capitals translates only into accumulation. It doesn’t translate into productivity or dripping. So raising pensions is not just a matter of increasing public debt, but also of making actions that touch the background of the model.”
As for the next steps that depend on the Senate and a possible injunction before the Constitutional Court, the 12th-district MP said that “I hope the Senate lives up to the circumstances of the country. And on the request to the TC, I want to see if the government dares to go. I don’t think they will. It is best to rethink the way economic policies are approached because that mindset of having an ultra-concentrator and ultra-conservative model, all it promotes is the lack of social cohesion and the perpetuation of inequality.”

Original source in Spanish

Related Posts

Add Comment