The Democratic Party criticizes the opposition's consecutive 'unilateral budget approvals' as "Lee Jae-myung's command budget"

Budget Passed by Democratic Party Alone in 6 Standing Committees Until the Day Before
Ruling Party: "Constitution Grants Budget Formulation Authority to Government"
Criticism on R&D, Nuclear Power, Local Currency, and Youth Budget

The People Power Party strongly criticized the Democratic Party of Korea on the 21st for unilaterally passing the budget in six standing committees, calling it "a budget ordered by Representative Lee Jae-myung."

Yoon Jae-ok, the floor leader, said at the party strategy meeting held at the National Assembly that morning, "The Democratic Party is abusing its majority seats and distorting the 2024 government budget into the Democratic Party's budget," adding, "There are disruptions in standing committees such as the National Defense Committee and the Gender Equality and Family Committee."

Yoon pointed out that the Democratic Party's unilateral approval of the standing committee budget violates the Constitution. He emphasized, "(The Democratic Party) is directly denying the government's budget formulation authority stipulated in the Constitution and acting as if they have the authority to formulate the budget."

Yoon Jae-ok, floor leader of the People Power Party, is speaking at the floor countermeasure meeting held at the National Assembly on the 21st. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

He then referred to Article 57 of the Constitution, which states that "the budget amount cannot be increased or new budget items established without the government's consent," and criticized, "Nevertheless, the Democratic Party unilaterally increased the budget by establishing items not included in the government budget, such as 705.3 billion won for local currency in the Administrative Safety Committee and 292.3 billion won for the Youth Pass in the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee," adding, "Both items are ordered budgets by Representative Lee Jae-myung and are typical populist budgets."

Yoon mentioned the increase in R&D budget by the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee as a representative case of 'budget runaway.' He said, "While the Democratic Party cut 1.1513 trillion won for 47 items including the president's pledge for global R&D, it increased 2.0088 trillion won for 161 items such as operating expenses for government-funded research institutes to the 2023 level, reverting to the old structure," adding, "This directly denies the government's R&D budget restructuring."

He also pointed out that the Democratic Party unilaterally cut the nuclear power-related budget at the Industry, Trade, and Small and Medium Venture Business Committee the day before. At the committee, the Democratic Party cut the entire 188.9 billion won budget for the innovative small modular reactor (SMR) and nuclear power-related R&D. On the other hand, they requested a 161.9 billion won increase in renewable energy-related budgets promoted during the Moon Jae-in administration.

Yoon evaluated, "SMR is an advanced technology that is a future growth engine and contributes to carbon neutrality, and it was also a presidential pledge of Representative Lee Jae-myung, but the Democratic Party blocks SMR while leaving renewable energy, which was stained by corruption and bribery. I cannot understand the Democratic Party's self-contradiction and stubbornness."

There was also a claim that the Democratic Party is focusing solely on winning elections, neglecting the 'youth budget.' Song Eon-seok, a People Power Party member and secretary of the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Special Committee, said at the meeting, "The unilateral handling of preliminary reviews in standing committees, relying on the Democratic Party's number of seats, reads as if they only care about winning elections, not the country," citing youth-related budgets as an example.

Earlier, on the 16th, the Democratic Party completely cut the 166.3 billion won budget for the government's 'Youth Employment Career and Work Experience Support Project' at the Environment and Labor Committee, and the day before, unilaterally increased the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 'Youth Regular Employee Tomorrow Filling Deduction Plus' project budget by 90 billion won at the Industry Committee.

Regarding this, Song said, "The Youth Employment Career and Work Experience Support Project, which the Democratic Party completely cut in the standing committee, is a project to support practical job experience for young people without work experience. In a job market atmosphere where companies prefer experienced workers, young people without work experience find it difficult even to get their first job opportunity," adding, "Nevertheless, the Democratic Party disparaged and completely cut the work experience project, showing no understanding of the hardships of youth and only paying lip service."

Regarding the Youth Tomorrow Filling Deduction, which started under the Moon Jae-in administration and has had about 6 trillion won invested until this year, he said, "This is a representative example of the Democratic Party's failure in youth employment policy. Among the cumulative youth subscribers since the project started, 32.8% terminated early before maturity," adding, "Despite wasting 6 trillion won of taxpayers' money, they demand an increase while completely cutting the work experience project that youth actually want. Isn't this a cry that they don't care about the youth's future but only want to protect the Democratic Party's budget unconditionally?"

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