Park Hong-keun Gives an Ultimatum, “If the Government and Ruling PPP Refuse to Accept Budget Cuts, We Will Submit Our Revised Budget”

Park Hong-keun, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, enters the National Assembly speaker’s office to negotiate next year’s budget on December 7. Yonhap News

On December 8, Park Hong-keun, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea announced, “If the government and ruling party (People Power Party) ultimately refuses the proposal from the Democratic Party, which withdraws tax cuts for the superrich and cuts the budget at a maximum rate to significantly increase the budget for the people’s livelihoods, we have no choice but to submit our own revised budget proposal, if we are to pass the budget in the regular parliamentary session.”

Park made the announcement in a meeting with the press at the National Assembly Thursday. He gave the government and the People Power Party (PPP) an ultimatum with one day till the end of the regular session. Park said, “We continued our negotiations until late into the night yesterday, but it was difficult to take one step forward with the government so stubborn and the PPP holding us back.”

He further said, “The government and the PPP submitted the biggest budget ever for next year amounting to 639 trillion won and only agreed to cut 1.2 trillion won in the review by the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts,” and argued, “The government is unyielding in the negotiation, hardly acknowledging the National Assembly’s right to deliberate budget cuts stipulated in the Constitution.” Park explained, “During the five years under the Moon Jae-in government, when the nation’s budget was smaller, the National Assembly reduced an average of 5.1 trillion won in the budget even after excluding general account transfers,” and added, “Based on reasonable precedents, it is very doubtful as to whether the incumbent government and PPP are at all willing to pass the budget.”

The Democratic Party floor leader argued, “The government and ruling party are only busy defending ‘Yoon’s budget’ while insisting on tax cuts for the superrich,” and asked, “If they unconditionally oppose everything, from budget cuts for nonessentials to massive budget increases for the economic activities of the common people, then who in the world is going to do all the work?” He continued and said, “If the government is no longer going to issue state bonds, then they must accept bolder cuts in the government’s budget proposal to prepare for the worst and to concentrate fiscal resources on the economy and the people’s livelihoods.” The Democratic Party wants the government to drastically cut the budget for the relocation of the presidential office and for items based on enforcement decrees that violate the law, such as the police bureau, and to cancel tax cuts for the superrich.

Park said that the Democratic Party would secure a budget for the seven major items connected to the people’s economic activities with the reductions from the government budget proposal. He proposed to abolish the unitary Basic Pension policy for married couples, to help restore personal finances for people with low income and poor credit, to secure the budget for the socially vulnerable, for community currency, for renewable energy, and for agricultural funding, and to expand the budget for the supply of public rental housing.

Park argued, “The government and ruling party named their budget a ‘budget centered on the people’s livelihoods that provides deep protection for the common people and the socially vulnerable,’ but in fact, they made tiny budget cuts while remaining silent on the increases.” He also said, “We patiently waited despite passing the legal deadline (Dec. 2), but if the government and ruling party abandon their responsibility, we have no choice but to submit our own revised budget focusing on cuts.” Park further said, “Our revised budget proposal will be our last resort to replace Yoon’s budget of tax cuts for the superrich and money for nonessentials to secure the budget needed to improve the people’s livelihoods.”