Time to say goodbye

December 5, 2023 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Budgets, CO2, Coal, Economics, Germany, Government Waste, Greens, Renewables, Solar, Spending, Taxation, Wind Leave a comment

To your latest Green fantasies.

The money. She is gone, señor.

Germany’s Greens thought their moment had finally come… But then, last month, Germany’s top court handed down a ruling that effectively stripped the ruling coalition of the full financial firepower it needs to make those ambitions a reality.

The bombshell ruling by Germany’s Constitutional Court blew a €60 billion hole in the country’s finances, leaving the government scrambling to fill the gap. At the same time, the ruling sharply limits the government’s ability to draw from special funds created to circumvent the country’s constitutional debt brake, which restricts the federal deficit to 0.35 percent of GDP except in times of emergency.

These special funds were supposed to help finance several projects which are core to the Greens’ agenda — such as the transition of steel plants to hydrogen energy, subsidies for battery and microchip production, and the modernization of the country’s railway network.

More wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

November 27, 2023 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: Budgets, Debt, Germany, Government Waste, Politicians, Spending, Taxation, Waste Leave a comment

They’re still squirming. 1) No money but lots and lots of things to spend it on (spending voters’ taxes is how they get votes). 2) Can’t raise taxes any higher (voters are already being taxed to death).

Let’s see. 3) There’s still this debt brake thing we could tweak (except we would need to change the German constitution and the opposition won’t help us).

This adds up to… Are you serious? Do you honestly mean to tell us that we now have no choice but to set priorities and, gulp, cut spending? OMG we’re all gonna die!

Germany’s budget crisis spurs calls to change its borrowing limits – Germany’s budget crisis has given new momentum to reforming self-imposed borrowing limits even among the opposition conservatives, as hunger for sorely needed investment trumps an earlier political obsession with fiscal rectitude.

“Lost its luster?”

November 2, 2023 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Costs, Debt, Energy, Germany, Greens, Political Parties, Renewables, Taxation, Utopia Leave a comment

It’s called being confronted with reality.

This is a classic German Green phenomenon. As soon as they’re given power, they promptly proceed to shoot themselves in the foot by proposing “solutions” to non-existent problems that “regular folks” simply can’t understand, much less afford. They’ve been given enough rope, in other words.

How Germany’s Greens Lost Their Luster – The party was riding high when it entered the government two years ago. Now it is stumbling, blamed for driving voters to the far right.

What a difference two years make. And a Russian invasion of Ukraine. And rising energy costs. And a host of missteps that some even within the party concede has stalled the Greens’ momentum.

Today the Greens are widely viewed as a drag on the government of the Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz, which one poll gave a mere 19 percent approval rating. The Greens have drawn withering attacks from even their own coalition partners. To their opponents, the Greens have overreached on their agenda and become the face of an out-of-touch environmental elitism that has alienated many voters, sending droves to the far right.

It’s a cover-up!

August 10, 2023 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness Tags: Angela Merkel, Government Waste, Politicians, Taxation, Taxes Leave a comment

I mean, a makeup! A makeup cover-up? I don’t make this stuff up. Just look at the before and after photos.

The one on the left was taken before she ripped German taxpayers off of €55,000. The one on the right is after. She pocketed that cash, people.

Germans funded £47k in hair and makeup expenses for Angela Merkel since leaving office – Despite stepping down from her prominent role almost two years ago, Merkel continues to submit expense claims to the federal government.

As revealed in documents obtained by Tagesspiegel through a Freedom of Information Act request, the former German Chancellor keeps filing her expenses to the federal government.

German Of The Day: Steuereinnahmen

September 22, 2022 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: Economy, Energy, German, Germans, Germany, Inflation, Language, Pipelines, Putin, Recession, Taxation, Ukraine Leave a comment

That means tax revenues.

How’s it go again? The bigger they are, the harder their tax revenues fall? Jeepers. I wonder why tax revenues would be falling in Germany these days. It’s not like businesses are only just beginning to go bankrupt thanks to Germany’s dependency on Russian gas, Green utopian make-believe, skyrocketing energy costs and the resulting crazy inflation. It must be something else.

German tax revenues fall in August for first time this year – Federal and state government tax revenues fell in Europe’s biggest economy during August for the first time this year, the finance ministry said on Thursday.

Germans Demand More Free Stuff From The Government

September 4, 2022 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hurt Feelings Tags: Energy, Germany, Inflation, Taxation Leave a comment

Otherwise they would have to pay for it themselves.

Energy crisis: Germans call for help from the government – People in Germany are beginning to feel the pinch, in the face of skyrocketing electricity, fuel, and food prices. As inflation rises, concern is mounting — and so is dissatisfaction with the government.

“New Steps To Ease Energy Price Impact?”

August 28, 2022 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: Dependency, Energy, Government Wast, Pipelines, Putin, Renewables, Spending, Taxation Leave a comment

After being responsible for creating the problem in the first place? That just means taking away and burning more of the money of the people you’re doing the “easing” for. All “free” stuff is like that.

Germany’s SPD plans new steps to ease energy price impact, document shows – Germany’s ruling Social Democrats (SPD) will propose further measures to help its citizens cope with rising energy prices, including another discounted national transport ticket, a document seen by Reuters showed on Sunday.

Households are facing higher energy costs after the German gas market operator set a levy from October to help utilities cover the cost of replacing Russian supplies.

With energy prices rising following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the government has already introduced two relief packages this year, including a 9 euro ($8.96) transport ticket allowing travel anywhere in Germany that expires on Aug. 31.

The Law Of Unintended Consequences

August 26, 2022 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: Dependency, Energy, Gas, Government, Greens, Inflation, Pipelines, Putin, Renewables, Taxation, Ukraine Leave a comment

We’re from the government and we’re here to help. Again. Resistance is futile. No force in the universe can stop us from helping you so shut up and let us help you already.

Germany’s latest consumer tax (they keep coming in hot and heavy) was meant to help offset soaring gas prices by helping energy companies in need. A questionable enough undertaking already, I’d say. But now it turns out that billions of these tax euros will be flowing to companies that are not only not in need, they’re making record profits.

We were glad to help. You can thank us later.

Gas Price Already Unaffordable?

August 16, 2022 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: Energy, Gas, German Language, Germans, Germany, Greens, Pipelines, Putin, Taxation, Ukraine Leave a comment

You won’t be able to pay for your heating this winter as it is? We’ll help out by adding an additional tax to that. Only we won’t call it a tax, of course. We’ll call it an Umlage. That means contribution, share, levy.

It’s what we do here in Green Germany. It’s for the greater good or something.

Germany Slaps Levy on Households to Spread Pain of Gas Surge – Government allows industry to pass on prices to consumers.

Germany’s government said households will face additional annual costs of about 290 euros ($296) to pay for natural gas as the burden of Russia’s squeeze on energy flows to Europe is redistributed.

“A Limit To Fiscal Capacity?”

June 13, 2022 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Budgets, German, Germans, Germany, Government spending, Government Waste, Inflation, Spending, Taxation Leave a comment

Is there really such a thing? Someone should inform the Biden administration immediately.

Germany’s federal government has reached the limit of its fiscal capacity, its finance minister said, with extra financing to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, the impact of the war in Ukraine and a climate fund having exhausted government coffers.

“There are no reserves in the 2022 federal budget,” Christian Lindner was quoted by news website t-online as saying on Saturday, Reuters reported.

He warned against granting further financial support before the autumn to citizens to offset the impact of rising inflation. “I advise letting the measures taken so far take effect,” he said.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Tag Archives: Taxation