Choi Hyung-doo: "Supplementary Budget Cannot Be Ignored in National Crisis... Burden on Future Generations Must Be Reduced"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Choi Hyung-doo, floor spokesperson of the United Future Party, stated on the 2nd that he is willing to cooperate on the 3rd supplementary budget (supplementary budget) plan, saying, "We cannot stand by in a national crisis situation." He expressed concerns about the ruling party's 'monopoly of standing committees.'

On the 2nd, Choi appeared on KBS Radio's "Kim Kyung-rae's Strongest Current Affairs" and said, "We need to carefully examine whether the supplementary budget is unnecessary or truly needed so that it does not leave a heavy burden on the people and future generations."

The day before, Kim Jong-in, the emergency committee chairman of the United Future Party, showed a positive response to the supplementary budget, indicating that cooperation with the ruling party on the supplementary budget is possible. However, he added that the national debt ratio must be considered. He pointed out, "The problem is that the scale of the supplementary budget is very large. Considering that the current economic growth rate is going negative, there are concerns that the national debt ratio will increase significantly. Debt must be repaid by someone, and it is highly likely that the burden will be passed on to our next generation and the entire nation."

He expressed regret over the ruling party's unilateral announcement to take all standing committees ahead of the organization of the National Assembly. He said, "The ruling party's floor leadership has declared that they might take all the standing committee chair positions, completely breaking the tradition of cooperation that the National Assembly has upheld for the past 30 years. We were shocked. We hope to continue the tradition of a cooperative National Assembly that can solve such issues together and start anew."

Regarding the Democratic Party's proposal to open the National Assembly regardless of the organization, he said, "Once the first meeting to elect the Speaker of the National Assembly is held, all leverage and momentum for negotiation disappear. The Democratic Party knows this well, and they did the same in 2008, but now they are somewhat misleading people as if that is not the case."

He added, "Once the Speaker is elected, the Speaker can forcibly assign standing committees to even opposition party members regardless of negotiations, and through the plenary session, the standing committee chairs can be elected, allowing one party to take all 18 standing committees. In 2008, our party negotiated for 80 days to uphold this tradition of cooperation, but now the Democratic Party seems to have forgotten all that."

Regarding the opinion that this might be a negotiation 'bluff,' he said, "I hope that is the case, but last Sunday, the floor leadership held a press conference saying, 'We were shocked to see Floor Leader Joo Ho-young propose the organization negotiation and link the opening of the National Assembly itself to the organization negotiation,' which made me feel this might not be a bluff. There is a real concern that they might push through with the power of a huge majority."

He continued, "In the 20th National Assembly, excluding the main opposition party, they gathered minor parties in what was called 1+4 and pushed through laws like the Corruption Investigation Office Act, the mixed-member proportional representation system, and the semi-mixed proportional representation system. So, we have such concerns, but we sincerely hope that does not happen."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.