CDA Starts Negotiations 6 Billion Cuts

CDA leader Sybrand Buma has presented an alternative budget. The CDA thinks to recover the economy and employment by reducing the costs for employers and employees with 2.9 billion euro. This week the House will discuss the Dutch national Budget which was presented by the government on Prinsjesdag. The CDA is so far the only party which gives an alternative for the budget of the government. The plan of the CDA includes a reduction of the unemployment insurance contributions and introduces a zero baseline for the health care. Not everything thinks that the plan of the CDA is worthwile. PvdA The financial specialist of the PvdA, MP Henk Nijboer, says that the alternative of the CDA is not very social. "Buma chooses for less money for care givers, nurses and teachers, less money for the poorest in the Netherlands and less money for the fight against unemployment," says Nijboer. "On the other hand he wants more money for the 10 percent highest incomes (through a tax reduction). That is a choice, but not a choice of the Labour Party." Opposition SP leader Emile Roemer calls the CDA plan a ‘further shift to the right’. Roemer was especially critical about the proposal to introduce a baseline for the staff in health care. "Caregivers and nurses are already underpaid," argues the SP leader. "With these plans, the purchasing power falls further down. It will lead to more unemployment and will extend and deepen the crisis." PVV leader Geert Wilders says that the plan of the CDA is 'implausible'. The Christian Democrats have signed last year for ‘the largest tax increase in the last century' in the Spring Agreement. The alternative budget of Buma shows now a tax reduction. “What CDA wants is unacceptable. All that needs to happen is that the government steps down. It is bizarre that the CDA can not see that,” said Wilders. Motion of no confidence Wilders will submit a motion of no confidence against the government this week during the general political considerations. “The government should as quickly as possible go home, that's all that matters.” Unions A baseline in healthcare is "bizarre", " a taboo" and "something that the CDA has nothing to say about". This is the response of the care unions on Monday on the proposal from the CDA to freeze salaries of health workers. "It is a rediculous proposal", says Lilian Marijnissen, director of union Abvakabo FNV. "Health care staff has been hit hardest in recent years, their purchasing power has constantly declined. If now again the salaries are frozen, you hunt everyone out of the door. With an aging population, healthcare workers are desperately needed."