Amid Budget Cuts... Democratic Party Says "Cannot Concede on Special Activity Expense Reduction"

Park Chan-dae "Chairman Woo Won-sik, Regret Over Budget Bill Not Being Submitted"

Although the reduced budget proposal is being processed solely by the opposition party in the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Committee (BAC), escalating conflicts between the ruling and opposition parties, the opposition has firmly stated that it cannot concede on cuts to special activity funds (SAF) for power institutions.

Democratic Party of Korea Floor Leader Park Chan-dae is speaking at the members' meeting held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 2nd. Photo by Yonhap News

On the 2nd, Yoon Jong-gun, the floor spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Korea, met with reporters after a party caucus at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, and said, "Speaker Woo Won-shik is in favor of negotiating to process the budget, but the Democratic Party's position is that it cannot concede on the SAF," adding, "Due to Speaker Woo's decision, the budget discussion has been postponed to the 10th, so it is difficult to comment on further discussions, but we have absolutely no intention of conceding on the SAF portion."

He did not agree with the government and ruling party's criticism that the reduced budget proposal harms people's livelihoods. Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of the Democratic Party, stated at the caucus that day, "The next year's budget submitted by the government is a budget for the ultra-rich and a budget that abandons people's livelihoods and the future," and countered, "The budget cuts made by the Democratic Party include the entire SAF for power institutions such as the Presidential Secretariat and the prosecution, as well as an excessively allocated reserve fund of 2.4 trillion won."

Furthermore, he emphasized, "Despite an unprecedented worst tax revenue shortfall, the government proceeded with tax cuts for the ultra-rich while cutting the livelihood budget by 24 trillion won. Does the government have the right to talk about people's livelihoods and the economy? Blaming the opposition for the collapse of the livelihood economy due to the National Assembly, which has no authority to increase the budget after the government made cuts from the start, is no different from submitting an answer sheet full of wrong answers and blaming the grader when the results are poor."

Floor leader Park expressed regret over the postponement of the budget bill's plenary session to the 10th. He said, "Speaker Woo said he would not submit the budget on that day, and as floor leader, I express my regret," adding, "The government and the People Power Party are not interested in increasing the livelihood budget and are only focused on defending the SAF. Even if given more time for negotiation, I doubt anything will change, but we will do our best until the end to push through the livelihood budget and the Democratic Party's policy budget."