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As the right wing judicial coup attempts continue against the president, Brazil’s largest political party is planning what it will do if it takes over.
The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) is already working on sweeping austerity reforms should their coalition partner President Dilma Rousseff be impeached and it forms the new government, a Brazilian newspaper reported Sunday.
The PMDB, Brazil's largest party, is considering dramatic cuts in social benefits, including a large housing program for the poor and displaced workers and a program to make college education more accessible, stated a report published by O Estado de S.Paulo.
"We are looking at measures that could benefit the population, but at the same time achieve fiscal balance and keep government accounts healthy," Moreira Franco, a former minister under Rousseff, was quoted as saying. Franco is in charge of putting together possible actions, the article reported.
One of the potential changes being considered by the PMDB concerns a large housing program called "Minha Casa, Minha Vida", which is heavily subsidized by a federal funds and was originally designed to compensate workers who lose their jobs.
Since the program was first launched in 2011, the MCMV initiative has provided 1.7 million affordable homes to Brazilian families.
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Other possible measures include cuts to a program to finance college tuitions and the removal of tax exemptions in some industrial sectors.
The newspaper also said the PMDB was considering imposing limits on the "Bolsa Família," a key social policy supported by Rousseff's Worker party (PT) in recent years, whereby it would apply only to the poorest 10 percent who live on less than 1 dollar a day.
The Brazilian government estimates that 22 million have been lifted out of poverty nationally since 2011 due to social welfare programs such as the Brasil Without Poverty (PSM) program, which is a government initiative aimed to combat poverty through the promotion of Bolsa Familia, a project that currently provides financial assistance to 14 million low income households.
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