President Hipólito Mejía used sharp language to rebut the complaints of business leaders that the fiscal package enacted by Congress yesterday would result in the loss of countless jobs and lead to the bankruptcy of small and mid-sized businesses. Mejía said that it was untrue that he had not taken into account the views of the business sector, as charged by Celso Marranzini, President of the National Business Council (CONEP), since Marranzini asked him to drop from 2% to 1.5% the monthly tax pre-payment, and Mejía did so. "We have been chosen to direct the policy, not them," said the President, "and now the country’s poor have a godfather in the National Palace." While in the course of a 12-hour sojourn through the Southwest, Mejía convened a cabinet session in the City of Azua, where he said that big business thinks that "what’s good for them is good, and what’s not good for them is bad." He added "[Marranzini] only thinks about the needs of business leaders, and not about the fact that poor people need to eat."
