Final Word from Monday, September 5, 2011
Nearly everything has been said about the planned VAT hike next year, but it's worthrecapitulating a few points. Cynicism in the CR has grown so widespread that manypeople see the VAT increase as a way for Miroslav Kalousek to take more moneyfrom working people so that the criminal elite can have a steady pool from which tosteal. If people were convinced that the extra tax revenue were going toward goodcauses, such as pensions or deficit-reduction, the opposition wouldn't be as great.Václav Klaus himself told LN in March that he sees no great reason for such a radicalreform of VAT. But when it comes time for him to sign or veto the bill, he almostcertainly won't mention the corruption aspect. He told Czech TV that corruption is acheap political topic and that true corruption might be more brutal and ugly here butis otherwise no worse than the sophisticated kind a little farther to the West.
Glossary of difficult words
to recapitulate - to summarize and state again the main points of;
steady - regular, even and continuous;
pool - a source of common funding.