@ISIDEWITHQuestionseconomy11yrs ago

Should there be fewer or more restrictions on current welfare benefits?

In 2011 the level of public spending on the welfare state by the British Government accounted for £113.1 billion, or 16% of government. By 2020 welfare spending will rise to 1/3rd of all spending making it the largest expense followed by housing benefit, council tax benefit, benefits to the unemployed, and benefits to people with low incomes.

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Answer Overview

Response rates from 2.6k Left voters.

68%
Fewer
28%
More
55%
Fewer
17%
More
10%
Fewer, and ensure benefits go to those that need it most
5%
More, but increase benefits for the elderly and disabled
3%
Fewer, current benefits do not provide enough support
5%
More, reform the system so that it supplements, rather than replaces, a working income
1%
More, and deny benefits to immigrants
1%
More, current benefits should be capped

Historical Support

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…7mos7MO

Claudia Sheinbaum Elected as Mexico’s First Female President

Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City, will become Mexico’s first female president after romping to victory in an election billed as a referendum on the leftist policies of departing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a vote that handed his party enough power in Congress to push through controversial constitutional changes.Sheinbaum, the candidate of the ruling Movement of National Regeneration, known as Morena, had 58.6% of the votes with 73% of the ballots counted, according to official results from Mexico’s election agency.Her closest rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, the candidate of a coalition of three opposition parties, had 28.4% of the vote and conceded defeat. Jorge Álvarez Máynez, from the center-left Citizen Movement, had 10.6%.Sheinbaum’s victory was bigger than expected and her margin of roughly 30 points would be the largest in a presidential vote since the 1982 election, when Mexico still was a single-party state. Pre-election polls had given her a 20-point lead.The vote reflected a resounding show of support for the government of López Obrador, a populist nationalist who won power in 2018 on an anticorruption platform. After taking office, he launched an austerity program for the federal government bureaucracy and redirected spending to welfare programs, especially cash handouts that included students and the elderly, keeping his approval ratings above 60%. López Obrador, who won with 53% of the vote in 2018, was barred by law from re-election.

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…3wks3W

German Economy Nears Collapse As Election Nears

Presenting the CDU/CSU’s manifesto on Tuesday. Merz said he would make savings of €100bn by reducing spending on migration and welfare. He also promised tax cuts and lower electricity prices to kick-start the economy, stuck in its first two-year contraction since the early 2000s. Meanwhile, the SPD and Greens pledged to reform Germany’s “debt brake”, its constitutional cap on new borrowing, saying the country needed to invest billions of euros in its ramshackle infrastructure and the green transition.Meanwhile, the SPD and Greens pledged to reform Germany’s “debt brake”, its constitutional cap on new borrowing, saying the country needed to invest billions of euros in its ramshackle infrastructure and the green transition. Some observers worry Scholz’s televised intervention could end up setting the tone for the rest of the contest. Even the Greens, his allies in government, expressed disapproval. “One is sometimes surprised by his choice of words,” said Franziska Brantner, the Greens co-leader. Germany is not used to rambunctious, no-holds-barred elections. Under Scholz’s predecessor Angela Merkel, who governed Germany from 2005-2021, campaigns were soporific affairs, lacking the cut and thrust and spectacle often seen in US contests. But Merz is an altogether different politician. Critics routinely describe him as irascible and touchy, given to intemperate outbursts that delight his fans but can put off more moderate voters. But even his detractors admit his powerful oratory can get under Scholz’s skin. Scholz, too, has changed his tone. As chancellor of a fragile, three-party coalition made up of SPD, Greens and the liberal Free Democrats, he cultivated a decidedly restrained, taciturn style. But that changed in November when he sacked his liberal finance minister, Christian Lindner, triggering the break-up of the coalition after just three years. He has since become a lot more combative. In the vote of confidence debate he accused the liberals of “sabotaging the work of the government” and Lindner of lacking the “necessary moral maturity” required to govern.