Brazil is struggling to pull out of its worst
economic crisis in decades, and President Michel Temer says the country needs
to curb public spending to do so.
Yet it did not help his dismal approval ratings
when he hosted a lavish taxpayer-funded banquet to persuade members of
Congress to support his budget cuts, with 300 guests eating shrimp and filet
mignon.
Outside such rarefied circles, Mr. Temer’s
austerity measures are igniting a fierce debate over how the richest and most
powerful Brazilians are protecting their wealth and privileges at a time when
much of the country is enduring a harrowing economic decline.
Simon Romero
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Brazil’s
sickly economy is hemorrhaging thousands of jobs a day, states are
scrambling to pay police officers and teachers, and money for subsidized meals
is in such short supply that one legislator suggested that the poor could “eat
every other day.”
Still, not everyone is suffering. Civil
servants in the judicial branch are enjoying a 41 percent raise.
Legislators here in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, voted to increase their own salaries by more
than 26 percent. And Congress, which is preparing to cut pension benefits
around the country, is now allowing its members to retire with lifelong pensions after just two years in office.
(...)
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Simon Romero – 03.03.2017.
IN New York Times.
