{"id":34242,"date":"2016-12-05T09:43:08","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T12:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=34242"},"modified":"2016-12-22T09:58:08","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T12:58:08","slug":"constitutional-amendment-to-freeze-public-expenditures-for-two-decades-in-brazil-may-pass-on-december-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=34242","title":{"rendered":"Despite Mass Protests, Constitutional Amendment to Freeze Public Expenditures for Two Decades in Brazil May Pass on December 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, November 29\u00a0protests erupted<\/a> outside Brazil\u2019s Congress in Bras\u00edlia as the Senate approved a proposal to amend the constitution that would authorize the implementation of harsh austerity measures. If passed, the proposal put forward by Brazilian Interim President Michel Temer will\u00a0establish a low ceiling on all federal government expenditures for the next twenty years. An estimated 10,000 demonstrators, including teachers, students, public workers and landless laborers, voiced dissent and pressured Congress to vote against the proposal. Three cars were set on fire, and police used teargas and pepper spray to disperse the crowd.<\/p>\n

\"Anti<\/a><\/p>\n

While originally entitled Proposed Constitutional Amendment 241, or PEC 241, this\u00a0last month the Senate changed the nomenclature to PEC 55. Despite the name change the content has remained the same. If passed this year, all expenditures including education, healthcare, social welfare and public services will\u00a0be capped at the 2016 fiscal budget for the next two decades, adjusted annually\u00a0for\u00a0inflation. Moreover, the\u00a0constitutional amendment would only allow for presidential revision after 10 years.<\/p>\n

\"PEC<\/a><\/p>\n

Temer and his administration argue that this drastic move will\u00a0help reduce Brazil\u2019s public debt,\u00a0which represented 66.2% of the country\u2019s GDP in 2015<\/a>,\u00a0and restore foreign investor confidence. In order for the constitutional amendment to pass, however, the proposal must win a three-fifths majority in two rounds of voting in the Chamber of Deputies, and two rounds of voting in the Senate. The proposal already won a majority vote in the Chamber of Deputies on October 10 and again on October 26. On Tuesday the Senate voted in favor by 61-14 in its first round. Temer\u2019s government is confident that the proposal will be passed once again at the second round of voting scheduled to take place on December 13, after which it will pass on to Presidential sanction and become law.<\/p>\n

\"PEC<\/a><\/p>\n

While the proposal appears to be moving through the voting process quite smoothly, students, teachers, workers\u00a0and public institutions are expressing staunch opposition with protests erupting across\u00a0the country. Similar demonstrations<\/a> to the one on Tuesday were held\u00a0in the city of Rio de Janeiro on November 16 outside ALERJ, Rio de Janeiro’s legislative assembly, to protest PEC 55 and austerity measures at the state level in response to the post-Olympic fiscal crisis<\/a>. Additionally, over one thousand schools and 172 universities are currently occupied<\/a>, with the dean of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro declaring PEC 55 a violation of constitutional rights<\/a>. The Guardian<\/em> this week published an aptly titled piece<\/a>\u00a0summarizing the situation: “Brazil is in crisis. And once again, the poorest will bear the burden.” Protestors have named the constitutional amendment PEC do Fim do Mundo, or Constitutional Amendment to End the World. In a recent press release<\/a>, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR) urges Brazilian government officials to uphold the regional and universal commitments to human rights signed by Brazil and warns that such austerity measures \u201cwould constitute an unauthorized regression under the Protocol [of San Salvador]\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Protest<\/a><\/p>\n

Budgetary planning that only adjusts for inflation means that factors like\u00a0GDP, population growth, and demographic shifts, as well as the changing needs of the Brazilian people, will\u00a0not be taken into account. The lack of flexibility and long-term timeline will\u00a0make it difficult for the government to respond to changes in the global economy. Opponents argue<\/a> that such drastic spending cuts will\u00a0only entrench social inequality in Brazil and further limit low income communities’ access to opportunity. As it stands now, delayed payment\u00a0of public workers and late distribution of student stipends are nothing new to the Brazilian public, a recent example being the delayed salaries of police and firefighters<\/a> in Rio de Janeiro in the lead up to the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

The following graph is from a recent study<\/a> comparing the actual GDP percentage spent on healthcare (blue) with what would have been\u00a0the case had PEC 55\u00a0been passed in\u00a02003. The study shows significantly less\u00a0investment<\/a>. The Brazilian universal healthcare system is severely underfunded. Imagine the future based on the below simulation. Physician, scientist, educator, and political commentator Drauzio Varella has stated<\/a> that PEC 55 would result in the end of SUS, Brazil\u2019s universal health system.<\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a><\/p>\n

The following table shows expected losses to health\u00a0over the next twenty years should PEC 55 be approved:<\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet another study<\/a> finds that under\u00a0PEC 55 education will\u00a0lose R$24 billion per year. This is particularly alarming given the importance of education to the nation’s development<\/a> and the current climate of teachers\u2019 strikes in schools and universities throughout the country.<\/p>\n

Critics also voice that the proposal disregards revenues collected by the state via taxation, and in no way aims to reform Brazil\u2019s deeply unequal and regressive taxation system<\/a> in which the poor pay disproportionately more than those at the top despite receiving chronically poor quality services. Likewise, the new policy does not propose to fight tax evasion, tax large fortunes, or implement a tax on dividends despite a recent study<\/a> showing that introducing a tax on dividends could generate as much as US$12.5 billion and would only affect the rich. In this same vein, there is no mention of reforming the corporate tax break implemented during Dilma Rousseff\u2019s presidency<\/a>\u00a0prior to her impeachment, which had devastating effects as seen in the recent economic crisis.<\/p>\n

This proposal is certainly not the first attack on social welfare in Brazil. While Dilma Rousseff and the Worker\u2019s Party operated on a platform of social aid for working classes, and successfully implemented the welfare safety net\u00a0Bolsa Familia–which took Brazil off the World Hunger Map<\/a> and moved it from most unequal nation on Earth to somewhere around 18th<\/a>–Rousseff\u2019s government nevertheless pushed for targeted cuts<\/a> in a variety of government programs, including education, and vetoed several proposed congressional spending increases on salaries and pension payments. However, Rousseff was strategic and specific in her austerity measures, whereas Temer\u2019s proposal is across the board and is unprecedented in scope and scale. Though many proponents of the proposal have argued that countries like Holland provide good examples of the success of austerity measures, no country has ever adopted a policy as strict and rigid as PEC 55.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Chart<\/a><\/p>\n

PEC 55 emerges at a time in which neoliberal policies have been facing considerable revision and criticism. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently published a study<\/a> showing that austerity measures do not effectively address economic crises and lead to increased social inequality. Even leading architect of neoliberalism and laissez-faire policies Milton Friedman was weary of extreme austerity measures<\/a> like those imposed in Greece.<\/p>\n

Opponents to the proposal have expressed concern that this amendment would mark a significant departure from core elements of Brazil\u2019s post-dictatorship constitution. Indeed, on October 7, 2016 the Attorney General declared the proposed amendment unconstitutional<\/a>. For one, there is the concern that such an extreme measure goes against checks and balances among branches of government, as the legislature will be unable to influence budget decisions. Additionally, article six<\/a> of the Brazilian Federal Constitution establishes the social rights of all Brazilians: education, health, nutrition, housing, transportation, leisure, safety, social security, and protection to maternity and childhood. In such a young democracy many are worried that a proposal such as PEC 55 will erode the current work in progress to improve social well-being given the nation’s dark history of inequality<\/a>, and leave the marginalized and poor in an even more vulnerable situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas On Tuesday, November 29\u00a0protests erupted outside Brazil\u2019s Congress in Bras\u00edlia as the Senate approved a proposal to amend the constitution that would authorize the implementation of harsh austerity measures. If passed, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":34268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,1290,335,1282,328,336,1329],"tags":[750,2069,2318,697,1688,449,427,397,698,2319,182,107,25,203,2010,673,2324,18,868],"writer":[2210],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-policies","10":"category-research-analysis","11":"category-understanding-rio","12":"category-violations","13":"category-by-international-observers","14":"tag-access","15":"tag-alerj","16":"tag-austerity","17":"tag-bolsa-familia","18":"tag-congress","19":"tag-constitution","20":"tag-economy","21":"tag-education","22":"tag-federal-government","23":"tag-fiscal-crisis","24":"tag-government-neglect","25":"tag-health","26":"tag-human-rights","27":"tag-inequality","28":"tag-michel-temer","29":"tag-misplaced-public-priorities","30":"tag-politics-in-brazil","31":"tag-protest","32":"tag-welfare","33":"writer-nour-el-youssef"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34242"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=34242"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=34242"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=34242"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=34242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}