‘A budget that crushes the middle class’: Lapid slams Smotrich’s proposals ahead of vote

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich after the latter holds a press conference promising that the 2026 state budget would lower taxes and the cost of living.

“Finance Minister Smotrich’s problem is that we know how to read a budget. There is no connection between what he says and what is hidden in this budget,” says Lapid in a statement.

“What Smotrich and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu put on the government table today is a budget that crushes the middle class and raises taxes. This budget will cost every working family at least another NIS 1,000 a month. Property taxes will go up, prices will go up, [groceries] will cost even more. In this budget, we continue to transfer NIS 60 billion a year to finance Haredi tax evasion, we continue to maintain 15 unnecessary and expensive government ministries, we continue to transfer political bribes in the billions,” he asserts.

He promises changes if the opposition takes power following next year’s elections.

“In the next budget, we’ll take the money from those who avoid service, close unnecessary ministries, stop the corruption spree, and use that money to lower prices and taxes for the working people who keep this country alive,” he pledges, claiming that the current budget comes “at the expense of reservists and taxpayers.”

According to Channel 12, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri is also pushing back and is said be conditioning his support for the budget on the allocation of millions of shekels in food assistance to Haredi families.

Deri’s spokesman denied the report last night, stating that it was “part of the anti-Haredi propaganda campaign” and that Deri “is not seeking to favor the Haredim, but to prevent the exclusion of the poor Haredim.”