Consensus for basic income may run over government
The different proposals to create a minimum income program starting in January 2021, led by left-wing parties before the pandemic, today are embraced by center and right-wing parliamentarians with ideas ranging from taxing financial institutions to allowing states to complement the federal program by increasing taxes on transfer of goods and real estate.
The government's flip-flopping regarding the subject resulted in a nonpartisan consensus on the need to approve a new program to replace the emergency financial aid. Some proposals favor an amendment to the social welfare program known as Bolsa Família, with among other changes, an increase in the number of beneficiaries. Others intend to regulate benefits provided by the universal basic income law written by former Senator Eduardo Suplicy (Worker's Party, PT).
Paradoxically, there is no inclination to put pressure on the president of the Chamber of Deputies Rodrigo Maia (Democrats, DEM, of Rio de Janeiro) to put to vote the Provisional Measure 1,000, which extends the emergency aid until December at R$300, half of its original value. The inaction converges with the government's desire that the MP is not voted on for fear that the amount will return to the original value of R$600.
If not voted, the Provisional Measure will be only valid for 4 months, period in which the emergency aid will be of R$300, a value inferior to the amount suggested by many proposals for a permanent basic income floating around. "Before the basic income comes the Provisional Measure, but it is hard to put it to a vote," says Deputy André Janones (Avante Party of Minas Gerais), who made the R$600 emergency aid the focus of his social media activities, with interactions that exceed those of President Jair Bolsonaro.
There are more than 100 proposals for the basic income already being discussed in Congress but the parliamentary committee in charge of the topic is preparing a compilation that put together six of them. The most ambitious proposal creates a "citizenship fund" which, against the wishes of the Economy Ministry, would not be subject to the spending cap, explains the president of the Brazilian Network for Basic Income, Leandro Ferreira, who advises the parliamentarians.
The most recent nonpartisan proposal submitted to Congress by Senator Tasso Jereissati (Brazilian Social Democracy Party, PSDB, of Ceará) suspends the salary allowance and the family allowance in favor of a universal benefit for all families...
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