The candidate for the Presidency of the Republic of the PDT, Ciro Gomes, contested the thesis that the Brazilian public machine is swollen and that reducing it will alleviate the burden of taxes on society. Defender of the proposal that it is up to the State to induce national strategic sectors, investing in sectors such as science and technology, Gomes said he wanted a State objectively in charge of promoting tasks that the private sector is not capable of promoting.
The candidate asked entrepreneurs about where to cut public spending, in a chat promoted by the Institute for Retail Development (IDV) today (22), in São Paulo.
“We are going to cut investments [públicos]? [É preciso dizer que] are [gastos] BRL 25 billion of the approximately BRL 4.8 trillion [do PIB brasileiro] in this sector. So, it shouldn’t be there”, Gomes exemplified, to argue that, contrary to what many preach, the State occupies a space below what is necessary to meet the needs of the Brazilian population.
“Our per capita spending [por pessoa] in Health are depressed, as well as in Education. In Security, they are a joke. In Infrastructure, we would need to apply 3.3% of GDP just to maintain what already exists. We apply around 1.2% of GDP. In other words, we are depreciating the national infrastructure”, continued the Labor candidate.
“So, how to say that the State is big? Does Brazil have more or less doctors than it needs? There is much less, according to WHO standards. Do you have more or less police? There are 11,600 federal police officers [para todo o país]. Have patience. Do you have more or less teachers?” added Gomes, emphasizing that no nation has reached a satisfactory level of development without an important state contribution.
Gomes pointed out that the cell phone was created by a US state agency and that the internet was created by the US Army. “All biotechnology, all robotics is [fruto do] American military industrial complex. Because basic research is very expensive”, pondered Gomes, saying that he was already mature enough to defend the maximum or minimum state. “What I want is for the State, in Brazil, to take the step that it has to do and to disseminate [os resultados] for the private sector”. According to the candidate, competitive asymmetries do not allow a country like Brazil to exempt the State from the task of coordination.
stay inside the agendas of candidates for the Presidency of the Republic for this Monday.
