Opinion – Rodrigo Zeidan: Buying votes

The president uses low-level electoral expedients to try to get reelected, destroying the quality of life of the most vulnerable along the way. The government’s plans for Auxílio Brasil are terrible, and the destruction of Bolsa Família by the incompetent economic team generated something that we should never see again in the country: the return of hunger.

It is good to remember that the government was against Emergency Aid, and had the amount shoved down the throat by Congress. And the government ended aid weeks before vaccines were available. Not only did it end the aid, but it announced that there would be no second wave, practically forcing everyone out onto the street. The government did everything wrong, all the time, and by choice.

Worse, it brought back something that hadn’t existed for years: the queue to receive social benefits. Today, hundreds of thousands of Brazilians line up for Auxílio Brasil every month. The government doesn’t seem to care. They took away from the most vulnerable families one of the main reasons for the success of Bolsa Família: predictability.

Being poor is not just receiving little, but also living with high volatility in income: one day you can work odd jobs, the next you can’t. Thus, social policies should always, if possible, generate predictability, which is the opposite of how the government acts, which does not know values, calendar, or conditions for society’s main income transfer policy.

Worse, government economists have been warned. At the time of the creation of the “thirteenth” payment of Bolsa Família, I publicly criticized them for the fact that they were creating something that was clearly inferior to simply increasing the value of Bolsa Família by 1/12.

Receiving a full amount at the end of the year or having an equivalent monthly raise are not equivalent in terms of public policy. One of the biggest benefits of Bolsa Família to families was predictability. The values, although not very high, allowed individuals to plan, whether to invest in education or even buy tickets for a job interview.

The program’s eligibility criteria were clear. A thirteenth, for a poor family, is always a welcome thing, but receiving 1/12 of the amount on a recurring basis (especially if it starts in January) is much preferable to getting the money all at once (months later ).

And now we have that the government sends the budget for next year without funds for Auxílio Brasil. Millions are in line for the program, able to receive aid, but unable to. In other words, the president has transformed the most successful public policy of the State in Brazilian history into a government policy with which he plays at will. He promises values ​​that he will not fulfill to try to buy votes.

He plays with people’s lives, as he has no empathy with those who don’t know how much they can count on at the end of the month. Its economists have always been against Bolsa Família and are achieving what they always wanted: limiting income transfer policies. Provided for the poorest, of course.

Transfers from society to the richest are still valid (if you make a mistake, they will create a subsidy for those who buy real estate in cash). No, this is not a normal government. And it cannot be treated as such. May he be taken to the polls as soon as possible. That is the only hope we have left.