Brazil: Lower house speaker criticizes rise in low-income welfare benefit
Brasília - Eduardo Cunha
The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, described President Dilma Rousseff's decision announced on Sunday (May 1st) to increase the amount of the benefits paid to low-income families under the Bolsa Família conditional cash transfer program by 9% as “fiscal irresponsibility”.
Speaking at a Labor Day demonstration, Rousseff said that the proposed increase in the welfare benefit had been included in the budget bill submitted to Congress in August 2015. But the lower house speaker contends that there is no room in the federal budget to accommodate this increase.
“Increasing [the amount of] Bolsa Família [benefit payments] at the present scenario is fiscal irresponsibility. In fact, even saying it had been provided for in the budget bill is just another government lie. The budget bill had even nonexistent revenue. I see [this] as a reckless last-minute rush by an already agonizing administration,” Cunha said. He went on, “Dilma [Rousseff] has wrecked this country and now she is digging up an even bigger hole.”
He noted that the government revised the annual fiscal target in the end of last year, allowing the government to close out 2015 with a primary deficit of $34.7 billion.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Brazil: Lower house speaker criticizes rise in low-income welfare benefit
