Beppe Grillo's Blog

It’s possible to make cuts. It’s possible to fly

Rigor Montis’s "spending review" has stopped with the pronouncements and with the soft sound of the English word "review". The Monti government has increased taxes, and it has done nothing else. The "spending review" has not been done. But the taxation review has been overdone, to such an extent that for the self employed, the skilled workers, the owners of small businesses, and all those who are subject to the “studi di settore” {estimates of how much you should earn}, it could be more worthwhile to stay home than to go to work. Before the total collapse of the revenue from tax collection due to the closing down of companies at a rhythm of a thousand a day, what’s needed is to make cuts without being held back by anyone. Italy is a hot air balloon that is losing height. Useless costs have to be thrown overboard. To do this, what’s needed is a government of public health that can be guaranteed only with a victory for the 5 Star MoVement. Cuts can be made in so many areas:

- grouping together of municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants (immediately)
- modernisation and computerisation of the machinery of central government with a 30% cut in costs (in 5 years)
- put an end to every foreign peace mission, that in fact is a true military mission (immediately)
- elimination of Provinces (immediately)
- put a stop to the construction of useless infrastructure like the TAV in the Val di Susa, the Gronda in Genoa, the Pedemontana motorway in Lombardy (immediately)
- elimination of public financing of the publishing industry (immediately)
- elimination of official blue cars except for the President of the Republic and the President of the Council (immediately)
- elimination of electoral contributions to the parties (immediately)
- halve the external consultancy contracts awarded by the central government and by local government (immediately)
- recover the 98 billion euro that slot machine companies have failed to pay in taxes (immediately)
- cut by 2/3 the spending of the Presidency of the Republic (immediately)
- adoption and use of open source software within the public administration (immediately)
- bring parliamentary salaries into line with the European average (immediately)
- cut the number of parliamentarians by 50% (during the legislative session)
- renounce buying F35 fighter jets (immediately)
- with an efficiency/savings drive, cut health care spending by 1/5 (immediately)
- cut or sell off two of the RAI national TV channels (immediately)
- cut Expo 2015 (immediately)
- halve the salaries and halve the number of regional councillors (immediately)
- cut pensions above 5,000 euro gross a month (immediately)

Together with the cuts listed above, what needs inserting is the “citizen’s income” to be found in many parts of Europe, like Germany, for those who have no job.
It’s possible to make cuts. It’s possible to fly

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Give the Government your opinion!

Riccardo Iacona and the F35 in “La Cosa”

Cuts, remnants and offal

Comments

This is an interesting list of spending cuts. What would be better to see are the annual costs and cost-savings listed alongside each item on this list. Another useful measure would be to note a rationale for the average person to understand. For example, why should the costs of the Office of the Presidency of Italy be cut? There needs to be the reasoning behind the exact cuts proposed showing us how this was measured. I read recently that the costs associated with the office of the Presidency of Italy run two or three times the costs of Buckingham Palace in London. This is interesting to know but not very useful, without data. While by law no new polls are allowed between now and the elections, we don't know how well we're doing. But we can imagine that there is still much work to do to convince the some 30% of undecided voters to come out to vote Movimento 5 Stelle. To do this, I think we need to give readers facts, data sources, and good links to reliable information. I hope this is useful.

Posted by: Joseph Crivelli | February 13, 2013 06:34 PM