Kwon Sungdong: "Lee Jaemyung Only Focused on Election... Will Never Accept Election-Driven Supplementary Budget"

"After Slashing the Budget, Pushing for a Supplementary Budget Is Shameless"
Kim Sanghoon: "Doubts Remain Over Effectiveness of Local Currency Program"

Kwon Sungdong, floor leader of the People Power Party, criticized the Democratic Party of Korea and its leader Lee Jaemyung on January 14 for their push for a supplementary budget (extra budget) and their local gift certificate policy.

At the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly that day, Kwon stated, "I heard that Leader Lee proposed a supplementary budget to Choi Sangmok, Acting President and Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Economy and Finance. It is truly shameless for the Democratic Party, which unilaterally slashed core national budgets and forced through reduced budgets, to now be pushing for a supplementary budget right at the start of the new year."

Kwon Seongdong, floor leader of the People Power Party, is speaking at the party's strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 14th. Photo by Kim Hyunmin

He continued, "The Democratic Party is once again pushing for the local currency law. Ultimately, Leader Lee's goal is populism through cash handouts using local currency. His mind is entirely preoccupied with plans for the presidential election, with no concern whatsoever for the national economy."

Kwon emphasized, "First, to boost domestic demand and stimulate the economy, it is only right to inject 398 trillion won-67% of this year's budget-in the first half of the year, observe the effects, and then consider the need for a supplementary budget if there are shortcomings. We absolutely cannot accept a presidential election-driven supplementary budget solely to fulfill Leader Lee's local currency populist pledge, especially when the budget has not even been properly executed."

Kim Sanghoon, chairman of the People Power Party's Policy Committee, also said at the meeting, "There seems to be no sign that the Democratic Party's addiction to indiscriminate cash handout populism will ever be cured. It has been reported that the Democratic Party is once again pushing a bill to mandate fiscal spending on local gift certificates starting July 1 this year."

He added, "The local gift certificate program has already had its effectiveness questioned by the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and the Korea Institute of Public Finance. The increase in local sales attributed to the introduction of local currency comes at the expense of reduced sales in neighboring local governments."

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