Former Finance Minister Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, chairman of the Likud, warned the government Thursday it must cut taxes as part of preparations for an economic slowdown. "In order to create rapid growth and use the crisis to strengthen the Israeli economy, we must cut taxes, implement economic reforms, and streamline government work," he told Radio 99.
He called for immediate general elections to "and dump the present Knesset, which has shown no special economic aptitude. The lack of elections creates chronic instability."
MK Netanyahu, who is Opposition leader in the legislature, reminded listeners that when he was the finance minister in the Sharon government, he "did things that hurt me politically" as part of a general economic reform that is widely credited with launching the economy on an unprecedented boom.
One of his most dramatic measures was the slashing of child support payments, a move that remains a thorn in the side of the Shas party, which has demanded that they be restored as the price of its joining a new coalition.
MK Netanyahu also said that he proposed a change in the supervision of investment banks but that it has not been carried out by the current government.
"From time to time, the government has to intervene, just as it intervened in the Great Depression of 1929," he said on the radio program, as reported by Globes. "Government intervention in times of failure is not forbidden. The free economy is the main growth engine of the United States. Statements about abandoning the free economy are pointless."