@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 16k Spain voters.

49%
Fewer
46%
More
35%
Fewer
30%
More
12%
Fewer, and ensure benefits go to those that need it most
6%
More, reform the system so that it supplements, rather than replaces, a working income
2%
Fewer, current benefits do not provide enough support
4%
More, but increase benefits for the elderly and disabled
4%
More, and deny benefits to immigrants
2%
More, current benefits should be capped

Historical Support

Trend of support over time for each answer from 16k Spain voters.

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Other Popular Answers

Unique answers from Spain voters whose views went beyond the provided options.

 @8TPRPLVanswered…4yrs4Y

Mas restricciones, así evitaremos que haya gente que no quiera trabajar.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…9mos9MO

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…3mos3MO

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.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…4mos4MO

House Democrats Filibuster Flip-Flop: Keep It When the GOP’s in Charge, Kill It When We Are

Filibuster for me, but not for thee. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), an outspoken critic of the Senate filibuster, indicated Monday that she will not support axing the procedural hurdle as long as Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress. “Am I championing getting rid of the filibuster now when the Senate has the trifecta? No,” the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “But had we had the trifecta, I would have been, because we have to show that government can deliver,” Jayapal added. The Senate filibuster rule, which requires a 60-vote threshold to end debate and pass most types of legislation in the upper chamber, is seen as the best chance Democrats have at blocking the adoption of President-elect Donald Trump agenda – with Republicans taking a 53-47 seat advantage in the Senate and expected to retain a slim majority in the House. Jayapal, as recently as September, was pushing to “abolish” what she called the “Jim Crow filibuster.” “The filibuster was originally created *by mistake* in 1806,” she wrote on X. “Every day we don’t abolish it is just as big a mistake.”The Washington Democrat dislikes that the procedural tool makes it difficult for progressives to ram their agenda through Congress. “It’s the filibuster OR an assault weapons ban. It’s the filibuster OR codified abortion access. It’s the filibuster OR raising the minimum wage. It’s the filibuster OR protecting voting rights. The choice is clear. Abolish the Jim Crow filibuster,” Jayapal tweeted. The progressive rep argued Monday that passing a liberal agenda would’ve “built some trust with the American people.”“If we had had control of the trifecta and gotten rid of the filibuster to pass minimum wage, to pass paid sick leave, to pass many of these things that are passing – abortion access – that are passing on ballot measures that are so popular … then I think we would have built some trust with the American people,” Jayapal argued.

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