'Reduced Budget Proposal' Clash Intensifies… Park Chandae: "Government Lies Every Time It Speaks"

National Assembly to Discuss Budget Bill by the 10th
Park: "The Reduction Amount Is Only 0.6% of Total Expenditure"

Park Chan-dae, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized the government for opposing the reduced budget bill, saying, "A government that lies and blames others every time it opens its mouth should now take down its sign." The Democratic Party is trying to forcibly pass the unprecedented 'reduced budget bill without any increase' in the National Assembly.

At the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the morning of the 3rd, Floor Leader Park claimed, "The reduction amount of 4.1 trillion won is only 0.6% of the government's total budget expenditure," and "More than half of that is 2.4 trillion won in contingency funds without designated use." He also emphasized, "The reduction of special activity expenses (Saeghwalbi) for the Presidential Office, prosecution, and Board of Audit and Inspection will not paralyze state affairs," and "The remaining reductions are unrelated to the livelihood and economic crisis." He then urged the government and ruling party, "First, create an increased budget bill for the recovery of livelihood and economy," adding, "If you are not confident in doing so, you should return power."

Park Chan-dae, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is speaking at the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 3rd. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

Floor Leader Park pointed out that the government budget bill submitted to the National Assembly was originally misallocated. He said, "The government budget bill was an abnormal budget solely focused on maintaining tax cuts for the ultra-rich and preserving privileges of power institutions, not aimed at reviving the livelihood economy," and asked, "Is allocating as much as 4.8 trillion won in contingency funds a budget for livelihood economy?" Furthermore, he mentioned, "The People Power Party demands an apology from the Democratic Party, but there should be limits to such audacity," and "They messed up the national finances with tax cuts for the ultra-rich and now blame the opposition party, which has no authority to increase the budget."

On the 29th of last month, the Democratic Party used its numerical superiority to unilaterally pass next year's reduced budget bill in the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts. Then, on the 2nd, they attempted to submit the budget bill to the plenary session. However, the People Power Party strongly opposed and demanded the withdrawal of the reduced budget bill, and no agreement was reached between the ruling and opposition parties that day. The Democratic Party stated that it could negotiate if the government brings an increased budget bill but also hinted that it would process the reduced budget bill at the plenary session scheduled for the 4th or 10th.

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