Housing: 0.47% of the budget

We are entering the pre-election campaign and economic nonsense is skyrocketing. Today I want to talk to you about the general state budget and the destination of our taxes. By the way, these are budgets that have been extended for five years. To begin with, it must be clarified that the items managed by the autonomous communities are not included.

The general state budget for the year 2023 was 400,009,284,470 euros (not bad at all). The vast majority of the income, as would happen in a company, comes from the taxes and contributions that we pay: personal income tax (IRPF), VAT, social security contributions, etc. By definition, taxes are not paid for a specific purpose. Furthermore, budget items do not necessarily have to be fulfilled. As an example, think about the investment in infrastructure that is budgeted for Catalonia, and what actually ends up being executed in practice.

Of the total budget, 42% is allocated to pensions, 4.7% to unemployment, and 4.95% to other social benefits, such as the minimum vital income. From there, 7% is allocated to public debt and 2.7% to defense. If we leave aside the transfers to the autonomous communities and other general state services, we enter a section where no item exceeds 2%. Although I insist that the autonomous communities contribute to a higher degree, the general state budget allocates 1.5% to healthcare, 1.09% to education, and 0.76% to transport subsidies. And do you know how much is allocated to the big topic of the last few weeks? 0.47% of the budget goes to housing and promotion.

Therefore, when some tell you that they will increase the welfare state and others promise to lower taxes, think about these data and that it is always the other person's fault. The big problem is when we do not meet the budget, we spend over the limit, and we have to ask for public debt. We will talk about it next week.