"There's a deep hole in the budget, which Netanyahu created with his own hands by cutting taxes for the rich. He now has to fill the hole by raising VAT, which is a stupid tax that everyone pays, even the poorest people. It's unacceptable that both the poorest and the rich, whom Netanyahu adores, pay the same tax for the same container of cottage cheese," Labor Party chairwoman MK Shelly Yachimovich told “IDF Radio" (Galei Zahal) today in response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz's planned tax hikes.
“IDF Radio": If you listened, the director general of the Prime Minister's Office said that it's only possible to raise other taxes in 2013.
Yachimovich: "True, but Netanyahu has been prime minister for three years, and only now has he and Steinitz announced the forgiving of debts by the biggest and strongest companies. We're talking about tens of billions of dollars. Why take from the poor, and not from the rich, who will barely feel it, if they feel it at all?"
So what do you promise?
"First of all, it's possible to raise the companies tax by 1% or a little more. Nothing would happen. That's an immediate source of additional revenues. I have many more proposals. Maybe forgive everyone's debts, and that will be that. Cutting billions of shekels means driving the middle class to its knees, because it means less health, less education, less public security. It means crushing the middle class. Bibi promised to deal with the middle class, and he has a very simple solution: make everyone poor."
In response to Yachimovich's proposals of the past few days, the Likud said in response, "These proposals were applied in Greece and Spain, and we know the result. The responsible economic management of Prime Minister Netanyahu has saved the Israeli economy from the global economic crash. While unemployment is ballooning in the world to huge dimensions, 300,000 jobs were created in Israel."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 25, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012