I think the lesson of the UK winter fuel subsidy payment is that while it feels great in year one, it doesn't actually solve any of the problems, and then the voters get incredibly mad if you try to take it away again.

everything of importance ever done in EU was in response to a major crisis, in no small part because these exact voter emotions are dampened in such times.

>The problem is that 30-50% of voters would just look at that and say: Why are you spending €250B on corporate subsidies instead of giving us €250B?!

Why is it a "problem" for voters (aka the taxpayers) to ask such questions to their leaders to justify on how their tax money is being spent? To me this feels like basic transparency that keeps democracy in check.

To me it's the problem if politicians don't have or don't want to answer those questions because then, either they're grifting or they're incompetent.

It's not like we don't have a laundry list of mismanagement, couch corruption cough, of governments spending money on bullshit with nothing to show for, while stuff healthcare keeps being underfunded.

So yeah, if you spend my money, you better have an answer.