與 "Lee Jae-myung's Shielding Budget Cuts, Will Restore... Focus on Protecting the Vulnerable"

Kim Sang-hoon "Is the Democratic Party Trying to Turn the Country into a Lawless Land?"
Promoting Projects to Expand Sales and Jobs for SMEs and Small Business Owners
Increasing Salaries for Junior Military Officers and Allowances for Firefighters and Police Officers

On the 18th, the People Power Party announced that regarding the direction of the 2025 budget review, they will restore the special activity expenses (특활비) and specific task expenses (특경비) of the prosecution, police, and Board of Audit and Inspection, which the opposition parties including the Democratic Party had announced cuts to, back to the government’s proposal, focusing on strengthening protection for the vulnerable.

Kim Sang-hoon, chairman of the People Power Party’s Policy Committee, held a briefing titled "People Power Party’s 2025 Budget Review Direction" at the National Assembly that morning, stating, "The Democratic Party is using the budget, the last bastion of people’s livelihood, as a shield for Representative Lee Jae-myung and for political attacks, threatening government ministries with punitive budget cuts and attempting to paralyze the national system without hesitation."

Regarding the opposition’s preliminary audit in standing committees that cut 8 billion KRW in special activity expenses and 50.6 billion KRW in specific task expenses for the prosecution, and 3.2 billion KRW in special activity expenses and 648.1 billion KRW in specific task expenses for the police, Chairman Kim criticized, "They are declaring that they will cut the entire actual expenses required for investigations into serious social issues such as drugs, deepfake, and fraud cases."

He continued, "The Board of Audit and Inspection’s special activity expenses of 1.5 billion KRW and specific task expenses of 4.5 billion KRW, which play a role in detecting various corruptions and strengthening the nation’s self-purification ability, were also cut solely by the opposition in the preliminary review of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee," and pointed out, "I want to ask whether such ruthless retaliatory budget cuts by the Democratic Party are a high-level strategy to drive the Republic of Korea into lawlessness."

Yonhap News

The People Power Party plans to increase the budget for '34 major livelihood budget items in 7 sectors' in response to the opposition’s stance for next year’s budget.

They intend to prepare measures to increase sales and expand jobs for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners, invest to secure superiority in advanced industries, expand support for families with school-age children and multi-child households, and revitalize the local construction economy and supplement local finances.

Additionally, they plan to strengthen projects to eradicate the four major livelihood crimes, promote budgets for essential medical systems, expand support budgets for the vulnerable, and enhance the treatment of those who have devoted themselves to the nation.

For increasing sales and expanding jobs for SMEs and small business owners, they will promote events such as a SME sales fair linked to Black Friday, a refund event for Onnuri gift certificates during holidays, and establish a dedicated employment support track for young entrepreneurs who have closed their businesses.

As an advanced industry superiority strategy, they proposed expanding investment support in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, increasing support for specialized complexes in advanced strategic industries such as semiconductor mega clusters, and providing package support for youth startup education, funding, and commercialization.

For families with school-age children and multi-child households, they plan to support by significantly expanding incentives for flexible remote and telecommuting work when choosing telecommuting during childcare instead of parental leave, providing purchase subsidies for vans to households with three or more children, further reducing the self-pay portion of childcare services, and drastically reducing private education expenses through the development of the 'My Own AI Tutor After School' program.

To revitalize the local construction economy and supplement local finances, they promised to increase budgets for the repair and maintenance of aging social overhead capital (SOC) facilities, bridges, sewage pipelines, flood prevention entry blocking facilities for underground roads, and pedestrian guardrail reinforcement, as well as budgets for the central government’s long-term low-interest acquisition of local bonds.

They will significantly expand budgets to eradicate the four major livelihood crimes including deepfake, drugs, investment leading rooms, and cyber gambling, and plan to restrict the residence of high-risk sex offenders after their release. They also plan to strengthen crackdowns on illegal foreign fishing vessels by upgrading the performance of aging patrol boats.

Furthermore, they will support the expansion of personnel and facilities related to regional and essential medical care at private university medical schools along with national university medical schools, and introduce budgets for built-in installations such as built-in closets and air conditioners in military housing facilities to improve public health and the treatment of uniformed public officials. They will also raise the salaries of junior military officers and improve the allowance system for firefighters and police officers.

Gu Ja-geun, the ruling party’s secretary of the Budget and Accounts Committee, promised, "The People Power Party will break away from the previous government’s ineffective fiscal policy focused on total volume, and will do its utmost to ensure that the limited budget made from the people’s taxes is allocated appropriately to protect livelihoods, nurture the future, and strengthen protection for the vulnerable."

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