Hong Ik-pyo: "Yoon Government, Give Up Ultra-Rich Tax Cuts for People's Livelihood"

Democratic Party Floor Strategy Meeting... Budget Review Scheduled
"Efforts to Correct Budgets for R&D and Saemangeum"

Hong Ik-pyo, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, urged on the 21st regarding the National Assembly's review of next year's budget, "If the government and ruling party understand even a little of the people's anxious feelings, they should abandon the ultra-rich tax cuts and austerity fiscal policy."

At the party strategy meeting held at the National Assembly that morning, Floor Leader Hong said, "In a situation where it is not enough to take the lead to overcome the imminent livelihood and economic crisis, the government and ruling party are cutting budgets for people's livelihood, and the opposition party is correcting this, repeating a reversed situation."

He criticized, "The government's budget proposal should be based on what is more important to the people facing economic and livelihood crises. However, the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's overall faulty budget proposal shows no principles or standards, repeating only tax cuts for the rich and austerity fiscal policy like a parrot, forcing the people to tighten their belts and endure pain."

He continued, "The Democratic Party is doing its best to filter out wasteful budgets improperly allocated from the standing committee review stage and to correct the research and development (R&D) budget and Saemangeum budget, which were cut without principles and standards, to revive 'livelihood and the future.'"

Hong Ik-pyo, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is speaking at the party strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 21st. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

The National Assembly's Special Committee on Budget and Accounts will begin reviewing increases to the government's next year's budget proposal starting this week.

Earlier, on the 15th, the Democratic Party unilaterally approved the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's budget for next year by increasing the budget for the Saemangeum-Jeonju highway construction (85.7 billion KRW) at the full meeting of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, while cutting half of the design cost (12.3 billion KRW) for the Seoul-Yangpyeong highway construction.

At the full meeting of the Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Business Committee held the day before, the entire 183.1 billion KRW budget related to the nuclear power ecosystem creation promoted by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration was cut, and at the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, the budget related to the national public news agency (Yonhap News), which the government had cut by more than 80%, was restored to 25.074 billion KRW, which is 10% less than this year. The ruling party either did not attend or opposed the votes and left the meetings.

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