There are finer ways to wake up than with the finance minister. This Eelco Heinen was speaking to the Radio 1 News on Wednesday 18 September, and he really felt like it. Cheerful, cheerful, and full of good cheer, he told how they were going to energetically implement VVD policies in the Schoof Cabinet. And then followed the next dialogue between Astrid Kersseboom and Eelco Heinen, about the VAT increase on art, sports and independent press:
Radio 1: Yes, but well, certain things are made more expensive. Look, the choice of, say, books is 21%, amusement park is not. Those are obviously things, people don't understand.
Eelco Heinen: No, and so this is also the reason for saying...let's not do that anymore, so let's take out those exceptions.
Radio 1: You could also have said, then amusement park too.
Eelco Heinen: Indeed, that was the initial plan. But yes, at some point you also try to make a package together that is bearable for everyone. For which everyone says, this is something I can support. Yes, and a compromise always comes out of that. That is not always optimal. But in politics, what I do find politically optimal is that there is support. And for this package, what we have agreed, there is a majority in the Lower House. And that is also worth a lot.
Radio 1: Do you know what a writer earns from the selling price of his book?
Eelco Heinen: That's not much. I have seen those stats. I don't have it in my head, but I was shocked that it is little.
Radio 1: That is 10 per cent. You will soon get 21 per cent of that book. And you are of the party that says work should pay. What is the reasonableness in this?
Eelco Heinen: Well, this is obviously another discussion you should have with your publisher. I think it's pretty weird that you put all your intellect into a book...that you only get 10 per cent out of it. So that's also something you have to discuss with your publisher then.
Radio 1: But isn't that a bit of an easy way out?
Eelco Heinen: Well, I'm not looking for a way out. But when I saw it, the first thing I thought is...why do you keep so little when you put so much energy into it? But it's true. Then the Tax Office also comes along. Yes, you know, paying taxes is no fun. Everyone understands, it has to be. Because we also have things to pay for together. And that's where we have to make choices. We...I've said from the beginning, now grab spending especially. Because you see those going up. Don't do it in taxes. But you can't escape taxes altogether. And that's also in this outline agreement.
Radio 1: Yes, because that VAT increase rakes in over 2 billion.
Eelco Heinen: Yes, and so we give that back again in tax relief... for working middle-income earners.
Writers are stupid
On close reading, a few things stand out. first: the finance minister has no idea of how culture works. He looks up from the fact that people put their heart and soul into something that is barely enough to live on. He doesn't say it literally, but he thinks writers are stupid.
The proceeds of VAT, which thus comes at the expense of all those working in the arts and media, people who often work at very low incomes, will go to "working middle-income earners".
Another thing that becomes clear is that he would have preferred to stay on the spending side of government with his cuts. This highlights what NSC chairwoman Nicolien van Vroonhoven got right when she said during the Paradiso debate stated that the other parties had wanted to cut spending on culture and media much harder. it also makes it clear that the longer this coalition stays in power, the greater the risk of large-scale cuts in budgets of arts institutions, healthcare companies and education.
Subsidies for agriculture and fisheries - many times higher than those for art - are not in question because BBB.
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