BREAKING NEWS

Lapid justifies taxes, budget cuts as 'right thing to do'

MAY 8, 2013 20:40

Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Wednesday night said that, while he understood the anger directed at him, he had no choice but to impose the bevy of new taxes and cuts in the budget in order to prevent Israel’s economy from “collapse.”

"I think there's something legitimate in the anger directed toward me - we're hurting people in the pocket," he said in his first press conference since releasing the budget. “I'm also upset by the situation. I wish I could stand here and say what goodies I was giving out to the nation,” he continued, but "I'm not willing to get to the situation of Greece.”

"Everyone wants to fill the deficit but everyone wants someone else to pay for it,” he said. "Responsibility means sometimes doing the unpopular thing because it's the right thing to do."

Lapid conceded that the budget was a blow to the middle class and the working man he made the center of his campaign, but claimed that by taxing the rich, corporations and luxury goods in addition, he had kept his promise.

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