Rival parties should stop political row and reach consensus
Rival political parties are bickering over next year's budget worth 639 trillion won ($476 billion). The budget settlement committee of the National Assembly started deliberating on the 2023 fiscal expenditure plan Thursday, but faces a bumpy road due to a bitter disagreement between the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).
The DPK, which controls 169 out of 299 seats in the Assembly, is seeking a drastic reduction in the budget earmarked mainly for the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, describing the spending plan as a waste of taxpayers' money. The PPP maintains that the DPK is attempting to increase the fiscal budget for projects in favor of DPK Chairman Lee Jae-myung.
The rival parties have already locked horns over the possible invocation of a National Assembly inspection into the recent Itaewon tragedy and the envisaged investigations by prosecutors into multiple corruption charges surrounding Lee. Amid the fierce confrontation, concerns have been growing that the parties might fail to deal with the budget plan by Dec. 2, the legal deadline for passage.
The DPK, for its part, has come under increasing criticism for having balked at the budget, making the most of its status as the majority party. For starters, in the parliamentary land and transport committee, the DPK eliminated all expenditure proposals for the construction of a massive park in Yongsan near the presidential office. The Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee also slashed budgets needed to open the former presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae.
The DPK lawmakers also reduced the budget for the setup of an embryonic police bureau within the Ministry of Interior and Safety. The DPK is poised to remove all budgets for the construction of small modular reactors (SMRs), which has been in progress after halting the previous Moon Jae-in administration's nuclear phase-out policies. What is worrisome is the DPK's possible move to block the current government's policies to nurture nuclear power as a future energy source.
On the other hand, the DPK is trying to increase the budgets pursued by Lee, including 500 billion won to issue coupons by provincial governments. It is also seeking to increase budgets to support small business owners, and construct houses for the underprivileged. To sum it up, the DPK-initiated budget rose by some 8 trillion won, while the government-proposed one decreased by 1.2 trillion won.
The DPK is likely to attempt to weaken the Yoon government. The opposition party should be helping the new government carry out its mission. The party needs to recognize that it will be held accountable should the Assembly fail to pass the budget by the deadline. In addition, any budget increase is impossible without the consent of the government. Given this, the DPK should engage in full-fledged negotiations with the administration.
The PPP, for its part, has also failed to appropriately cope with the budget issue, by accusing the DPK. The public is suffering from diverse challenges resulting from high commodity prices, soaring interest rates compounded by the weakening of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar. The parties should stop political wrangling immediately at the cost of the national budget and engage in sincere negotiations.
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