"Double Play" vs "Wrongly Proposed Thing"
[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] The ruling and opposition parties have entered a fierce battle over the New Year's supplementary budget (supplementary budget). Both parties agree on the necessity of the supplementary budget to support COVID-19 damage, competitively raising the budget size, but they are only focused on seizing control of the supplementary budget, showing slow actual progress. Since the parties have different positions on everything from the budget size to funding methods, and even meetings to discuss these are uncertain, there are criticisms that they are only focused on vote calculations before the presidential election.
On the 23rd, the People Power Party responded to the criticism that presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol is not accepting the supplementary budget meeting proposed by Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, saying, "It is not a rejection, but rather that Candidate Lee made a wrong proposal."
On the same day, Lee Yang-su, senior spokesperson for the People Power Party's election campaign headquarters, said at a briefing at the National Assembly, "The supplementary budget should be formed through a process where the ruling party persuades the government, the government drafts it, submits it to the National Assembly, and the opposition party actively cooperates," adding, "Candidate Lee should first meet President Moon Jae-in to finalize the supplementary budget and then ask Candidate Yoon for help."
Earlier, Candidate Lee proposed an "emergency meeting of presidential candidates" to increase the supplementary budget. He said, "I fully agree and welcome the supplementary budget of 35 trillion won proposed by the People Power Party to support small business owners and self-employed people." However, when Candidate Yoon's side conveyed a refusal to meet, Candidate Lee criticized, "I expected Candidate Yoon to be different from existing People Power Party politicians who say yes in front but block behind," and added, "I hope they move away from double play and old-fashioned politics."
The People Power Party immediately counterattacked. Candidate Yoon said in a meeting with reporters the day before, "(Candidate Lee) seems to want to meet me very much," and added, "If the presidential candidates of the country's first and second parties meet to discuss something, they should show some results to the public, but Candidate Lee vaguely says let's meet. I have already said everything I wanted to say." He continued, "The 14 trillion won supplementary budget bill submitted to the National Assembly is far from enough to compensate and support the damages of self-employed people, so what more is there to discuss?" and emphasized, "I think at least 50 trillion won is needed."
In response to this tug-of-war between the ruling and opposition parties, the Justice Party issued a statement saying, "No matter how competitive the presidential race is, when it comes to urgent issues like compensating losses of self-employed people and expanding healthcare personnel, shouldn't we put our heads together?" and urged, "Let's do politics on a grander scale."
Accordingly, a tense showdown over increasing the supplementary budget and funding is expected at the February extraordinary session of the National Assembly. Candidate Lee advocates for a 35 trillion won supplementary budget to provide broad and sufficient support for small business owners and the self-employed, while the People Power Party mentions an even larger amount of 45 trillion won. The government's submitted New Year's supplementary budget size is 14 trillion won.
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