Germany isn’t considering tax cuts despite unprecedented prosperity, while the U.S. two months ago passed sweeping tax reform that adds at least $1 trillion to the debt over the next decade, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Germany’s outgoing government posted a budget surplus of $6.35 billion in 2017, but the country’s Christian Democratic Union – which Chancellor Angela Merkel belongs to – and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), plan to distribute more money to state pensions and benefit increases, according to a Fox Business report.

Merkel in September won a fourth term as chancellor and her government is set to come into office in March if the SPD approves talks with her conservatives on the basis of a joint policy outline which includes one small tax cut worth $12.4 billion dollars over the next four years for low earners. The outline also includes spending close to $62 billion on child care, education, infrastructure and welfare benefits, according to the WSJ.

“It is sort of a through-the-looking-glass world,” John Kornblum, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany, told the WSJ of Germany’s approach. “Traditionally Germans have been in favor of hoarding resources rather than lowering government expenditures.”

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