potential budget cuts threaten government

The fights over the budget have begun in full force. While such fights happen every year (or two) when it is time to prepare and pass the budget, with the government holding only 61 votes, such fighting becomes more critical.

Bennet is threatening that if the education budget is cut he won't vote in favor of the budget. Deri is threatening if the budget doesn't include certain tax cuts he won't vote in favor. There is talk about a possible stand down regarding the budget for culture. And normally there is a fight over the defense budget, which I am sure will be coming in the near future, along with other ministries fightng over their budgets.

While this is expected and normal, in a normal year the government could survive easily even if a few people are upset about their budgets being slashed. With a government that only has a bare majority, each and every coalition member has to be happy and satisfied or could carry out his threat and bring down the government. And with each and every coalition MK wielding so much power to bring down the government over anything, even if it is a trivial matter, the PM and Finance Minister become that much more squeezable.

So, it looks like we are in for an interesting week, from a political perspective. As if the week was not already interesting enough..

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