Lee Jae-myung to Hong Joon-pyo: "Lack of Economic Understanding... Stop Hindering the Government"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, fired a direct shot at independent lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo (Daegu Suseong), who opposed the fourth supplementary budget, calling it a "Moon Jae-in government crazy for not being able to give out money," saying he lacks understanding of the economy and urged him to humbly listen to the voices of the people.

On the 23rd, Lee posted on Facebook an article titled "Crazy for not giving out money? Lack of understanding or government obstruction," stating, "South Korea is the country with the highest household debt in the world but the lowest national debt," and argued, "If it can minimize side effects such as external credit rating and inflation and help the national economy and the people, the national debt should be increased within a feasible range to reduce household debt."

He added, "There is no reason to criticize by ignoring the GDP scale and saying 'the era of 1,000 trillion won national debt' or 'supporting the people by borrowing money,'" and advised, "Lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo and conservative media should humbly listen to the public's criticism that they either lack basic understanding of national debt, household debt, and transfer income, or are obstructing the government while hindering crisis recovery."

Lee also presented grounds for increasing transfer income to reduce household debt.

He first diagnosed, "The connection point between household debt and national debt is the state's income support to its people (transfer income), and South Korea has the lowest transfer income," adding, "Other countries have an average national debt ratio of around 110%, but ours is only about 40%, which is due to stingy transfer income expenditure."

He emphasized, "The owner of the country is the people, and taxes belong to the people, so the state's income support to its people is not charity or sympathy but a right of the people and an obligation of the state," and "At a time when polarization and economic recession are worsening due to COVID-19, supporting household income is the way to revive the economy and save the people through boosting consumption."

Furthermore, he rebutted, "Even the IMF advises South Korea to raise its national debt ratio, which is only 40%, to around 60% to manage finances," and "Raising the national debt ratio to 60% is just a little over half of the average national debt ratio, and if the national debt ratio increases by only 15%, there is a margin of 300 trillion won, which can be used as resources to stimulate consumption and create demand to revive the economy."

He particularly reiterated, "To overcome the economic crisis caused by COVID-19, fiscal spending must be increased by raising national debt as many countries do, and to solve the structural problem of consumption shortage (demand shortage) and enable a virtuous economic cycle, regardless of the method, household support must be increased."

He then questioned, "If ten children suffer from high-interest debts of over 20% annually with 100 million won each, would it be good or bad for the whole family if the parents borrow 1 billion won at an annual interest rate of 0.5% and give it to the children to pay off the high-interest debts?" and argued, "Is it something that should not be done just because the parents' debt increases by 1 billion won? If the parents' credit is not a problem, it is naturally something that should be done and beneficial to the entire family."

Earlier, lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo criticized on the 22nd, "I oppose the fourth supplementary budget for any reason," saying, "It's not about the content of the budget but how incompetent the administration is that it cannot foresee the imminent crisis and is borrowing money four times a year to make supplementary budgets."

He added, "It is truly outrageous how they are trying to handle the exponentially increasing national debt by doing such things."