Budget Bill Behind the Scenes...'Democratic Party's 4.1 Trillion Won Cut' Submitted to the Plenary Session as Is [Why&Next]

The Democratic Party of Korea will pass next year’s budget bill at the National Assembly plenary session held at 2 p.m. on the 10th. However, the additional 700 billion KRW cut proposal for the Presidential Office and others will not be discussed, so the budget bill with a 4.1 trillion KRW cut submitted to the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts will be pushed through. It appears inevitable that a supplementary budget for next year will be drafted.

According to multiple sources from the National Assembly and the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 10th, the Democratic Party decided to submit the “cut budget bill” that was unilaterally passed by the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Special Committee on the 29th of last month at the plenary session held that afternoon. Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, also announced on the morning of the 10th that he would pass next year’s budget bill at the plenary session. Lee said, “Today, the last day of the regular session, our Democratic Party will finish processing the budget bill.” The Democratic Party had passed next year’s budget bill with a 4.1 trillion KRW cut, including special activity expenses (Sae) for the prosecution and the Presidential Office, at the Budget and Accounts Committee on the 29th of last month.

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However, the “additional 700 billion KRW cut proposal for the Presidential Office’s project expenses,” which was mentioned by some on the 9th, was not included. According to multiple sources, this matter was not discussed during the budget negotiations between the government and the ruling and opposition parties held after 4 p.m. on the 9th. A Democratic Party official said, “The additional cut proposal was never officially announced as party policy,” and “It was not officially discussed at all.” The Ministry of Economy and Finance also explained that it had not received detailed information on the 700 billion KRW cut from the Democratic Party and that no additional discussions had taken place.

The budget negotiations, held privately from 4 p.m. on the 9th, involved Kim Yoon-sang, 2nd Vice Minister of Economy and Finance; Jin Sung-jun, Policy Committee Chair of the Democratic Party of Korea; and Heo Young, Budget and Accounts Committee secretary. The situation during the budget negotiations changed moment by moment. There were expectations that the Democratic Party might not submit the budget bill, considering the burden of unilaterally proposing a budget cut bill.

Conventionally, after the ruling and opposition parties finish discussions on budget cuts with the Ministry of Economy and Finance at the Budget and Accounts Committee, they negotiate increases and agree on the budget bill to be submitted to the plenary session. This is the process where the National Assembly, which has the authority to increase the budget, modifies the government’s budget bill. The National Assembly can cut the government’s budget bill, but increases or new budget items require government approval. However, the Democratic Party passed a budget bill with only a 4.1 trillion KRW cut, excluding discussions on increases, at the Budget and Accounts Committee on the 29th of last month.

Therefore, during the negotiations starting on the afternoon of the 9th, there were talks that the process of modifying the budget bill to be submitted to the plenary session, including discussions on increases, would be undertaken. On the morning of the 9th, Democratic Party spokesperson Hwang Jeong-ah also said before the negotiations, “We plan to review and negotiate the government’s increase proposals.” It is reported that increase plans were indeed included in the negotiation discussions. However, it was impossible for the ruling party to engage in substantive budget negotiations amid the impeachment crisis, and since the government alone cannot negotiate on equal footing without the ruling party, it was ultimately decided that the Democratic Party would submit the budget bill as is at the plenary session on December 10.

The possibility of the first-ever “quasi-budget” in constitutional history, which had briefly emerged, was quickly dismissed. Since the Democratic Party can unilaterally submit the budget bill to the plenary session, the utility of a quasi-budget, which only allows basic budget execution, is not high. A government official said at the time, “Additional discussions on the scope of the quasi-budget defined by the National Finance Act are necessary, but (from the Democratic Party’s perspective) there is no reason to do so.” If a quasi-budget is drafted, only basic budget execution is possible to maintain minimum government functions, such as civil servant salaries, national bond interest, and national pension. However, detailed additional discussions on the scope of ‘minimum government function maintenance’ must be conducted.

Accordingly, the Democratic Party has formalized the drafting of a supplementary budget (Chugyeong). Their position is to first prepare the budget requirements based on the budget reflecting the cuts and then draft additional necessary budgets around early to mid-January next year. Park Chan-dae, floor leader of the Democratic Party, emphasized on the day, “If there are parts that need increases for people’s livelihood and economic recovery, they can be resolved later through supplementary budgets or other means.”

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