It appears that Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will not meet to discuss the new state budget and the national deficit until the latter returns from the funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, taking place on Wednesday 7 Iyar 5773. The first cabinet meeting to address the state budget has been set for Sunday 25 Iyar. The treasury is already working, consulting with the experts in advance of that cabinet meeting to prepare the list of recommended budget cuts.

Following a meeting between Lapid and Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer on the eve of Independence Day, Lapid is signaling he is changing his goal and hopes to have the deficit remain at 3% and not permit an increase as he announced earlier. When asked to comment, aides to the minister told the media that they are not commenting on speculation at this time as the budget is being prepared.

Lapid writes on his Facebook page “In a perfect world, we build railroads and concern ourselves with the poor, the IDF, and there are no taxes, but our world is more complicated and it is composed of alternatives. We must be responsible and we may not allocate money that does not exist. We want the IDF to be the strongest army yet we want to cut defense spending because social workers are also important and they are below the poverty line.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)