Lula attacks spending ceiling again and says he will ‘spend whatever it takes’

Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) returned to attack the spending ceiling and stated that, in an eventual government, he will “spend whatever needs to be spent”.

“We are going to do whatever is necessary to improve the lives of the people. We are going to spend whatever it is necessary to spend. Often the expense is an investment,” Lula said in an interview with Espinharas radio, in Paraíba, on Tuesday (15).

He also defended that, many times, the expenses are investments. “You don’t have to limit, because when you limit, it’s to spend less for the benefit of the people. They consider paying retirement, salaries, investments in health as expenses”, he continued.

Leader in election polls, the PT also said that he does not believe in a spending cap, the government’s main fiscal anchor, and that it is “incompetence on the part of those who govern the country.” And he said that he will work to “regain the rights of working people”, put the poor on the budget and the rich on the income tax.

The spending ceiling rule limits expenditure growth to the variation of inflation.​

In the interview, Lula also stated that it is important to vote for candidates for the National Congress who “think like the people.”

“You can’t put the fox in charge of the chicken coop. You have to vote for people who are committed to benefiting the most needy in this country.”

The PT also said that it is necessary to strengthen social policies, generate employment and help micro and small companies.

This is not the first time that Lula has criticized the mechanism. In an interview with bloggers earlier this year, she said that social inequality should be a priority for the federal government, not the spending cap.

The PT also said that it is necessary to put the “fiscal commitment” of the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the background.

At the time, he stated that this fiscal commitment of the current administration does everything “to guarantee money to pay the financial system and does nothing to guarantee the payment of the social debt that is historic in our country”.

“We need to recover democracy so that we can put inequality on the agenda as a priority for a government and not prioritize the spending cap,” he said.

In June 2021, Lula stated on social media that he intends to revoke the spending ceiling if elected.

“Who cares about the spending ceiling? Bankers? The financial system? Spending is when you invest money that has no return. When you give 1 billion to the rich, it’s investment and when you give R$ 300 to the poor, it’s spent?! We will revoke this spending cap,” he wrote.