Bolsonaro proposes the Constitutional Amendment for social devastation.

Brazil is historically one of the most unequal countries. The construction and consolidation of income distribution, poverty reduction, and access policies have been the result of a state effort since the 1988 Constitution, with its most significant and undeniable results during the PT (Workers' Party) governments.

The proposed Constitutional Amendment (PEC) in the Federal Senate to eliminate mandatory spending and budget earmarking is a complete catastrophe from a social and public policy standpoint. Heralded by the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, in an interview with the Estado de São Paulo newspaper this Sunday (March 10th), this proposal, in practice, mortally wounds the Unified Health System (SUS), public education, and other social policies, which are already suffering from the financial strangulation imposed by the permanent fiscal orthodoxy established by PEC 95 and the declining ceiling on public spending for the next 20 years.

The Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) is a fundamental instrument for guaranteeing health as a universal right for all Brazilians, as defined by the 1988 Citizen Constitution, and its financing has always been a major challenge for public administrators and a concern for those committed to health in Brazil. Similarly, education is enshrined in the constitutional text as a right of all and a duty of the State, being a fundamental instrument for personal development, the full exercise of citizenship, and qualification for work.

That is why we placed education and health at the strategic center of state public policies and progressively ended the DRU (Social Security Reform Bill) and approved the law that linked resources from oil royalties and the Pre-Salt Social Fund to education and health. In the case of education, this new public funding model, built during the Lula and Dilma governments, ensured a real growth in the education budget, discounting inflation, of 206%.

Unfortunately, even under the previous government, Constitutional Amendment 95 eliminated the constitutional minimum spending requirements for education and healthcare and decoupled these areas from oil royalties and the Pre-Salt Social Fund. Now, Guedes and Bolsonaro's proposal further radicalizes the process, proposing the end of mandatory spending and budget earmarking for all levels of government: federal, state, and municipal.

This proposal comes with a strong privatization policy, "I would like to sell everything" (in the minister's own words), and the surrender of national sovereignty. It is the imposition of a minimal state in direct opposition to the Welfare State, enshrined in the 1988 Constitution. Ultimately, with this proposal from Guedes and Bolsonaro, education and health cease to be a state policy, independent of governments, and will instead follow a market logic, leaving those without income with only a voucher system, an experiment that has already proven a failure in education, where it was tested.

However, what may seem seductive to parliamentarians at first glance will, in practice, place the entire burden of permanent fiscal austerity on the budgets for health, education, and social policies on parliamentarians at all levels: federal, state, and municipal. It is no coincidence that Minister Guedes proposes that this absurd proposal be processed alongside the attempt to dismantle public social security. What Guedes and Bolsonaro are proposing is not a change to the federal pact, but the Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) for social devastation in Brazil.