Lira and Haddad give free rein to Lula – 07/08/2023 – Elio Gaspari

The approval of the constitutional amendment of the Tax Reform showed that, with Arthur Lira, president of the Chamber, and the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, Lula will have a free track to govern. Lira and Haddad have different styles. When the two styles come together, they achieve unprecedented results. The PEC had 382 votes, 74 more than necessary, in the first round, and 375 in the second.

Tax Reform was on the country’s agenda for 30 years. Knowing that between the time that American President John Kennedy wanted to send an American to the Moon and the day that Neil Armstrong set foot there, only eight years passed, one can see the size of the obstacles that were in the way.

As significant as Thursday’s result was the self-immolation to which Jair Bolsonaro subjected his most faithful followers. It is true that, under normal conditions of temperature and pressure, Bolsonaro is the dream opponent of skilled politicians, like Haddad, and cold ones, like Lira. In less than a week, the former captain lost in the Superior Electoral Court, by 5 to 2, and in the Chamber, by 382 to 118.

The Tax Reform vote, with its many virtues and many shortcomings, gave the government an authority that its predecessors did not have. He sought a coalition similar to the one that elected Lula last year, and the votes came. It is natural to think of the BRL 5.3 billion in parliamentary amendments released on the eve of the vote. However, amendments are a prerogative of parliamentarians and releasing them is an attribution of the Executive. If an amendment sends overpriced robotics kits to schools in Alagoas, this issue can be resolved by the Federal Police.

The success in approving the PEC of the Tax Reform occurred shortly after the impasse imposed on the project to regulate social networks. In the case of reform, the government talked. In the second, omnipotence prevailed, giving opponents of the project the argument that it incorporated a form of censorship. It could, because even a State agency appeared offering to manage the contents that circulate on the network. If in one case the Chamber showed that it is armored against harassment, in the other it showed how even a constitutional amendment can be approved by tinkering with taxes.

Federal Council

By the floor of the carriage, the Federative Council to be created by the Tax Reform will have the largest waiting room in Brasilia.

This council will have colonial powers over the sharing of taxes and the granting of benefits.

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