National Power "Reduces Lee administration's 'bad budget' by 30 trillion won"... Next year's budget announcement (comprehensive)

The People Power Party announced on the 3rd the party's next year's budget plan, which reduced about 30 trillion won from the next year's government budget plan that President Lee Jae-myung presented in his National Assembly speech on the 2nd.

The People Power Party is increasing the level of its offensive day by day, saying that it will not easily negotiate while the Democratic Party of Korea is speeding up the 'processing of the budget within the deadline'.

On this day, Representative Jang Dong-hyuk held a 'National Report on the Budget to Resolve the Lives of the People' conference at the central party headquarters in Yeouido and directly introduced the party's budget plan for next year, saying, "The government and the ruling party must stop the unilateral budget runaway and work together to complete the budget for the people."

The People Power Party emphasized that in order to normalize finances, the budget should be reduced by more than 27 trillion won, focusing on 100 unnecessary and urgent projects, and the remaining funds of about 104 trillion won in the Future Response Fund should be fully used to repay national debt. He also added that early repayment of government bonds can save 3 trillion won in interest costs.

In particular, the 'bad budget' that needs to be reduced to increase the 'good budget' was the Basic Society and Light Committee, support for cooperatives, the Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Blue House's special activity expenses, the Central Investigation Agency's special activity expenses, and reporting rewards.

In addition, the party announced that the budget it wants to increase is KRW 11.5924 trillion, including KRW 3.4287 trillion for 'youth's life', KRW 2.91 trillion for 'people's safety', KRW 2.8306 trillion for 'people's livelihood', KRW 1.225 trillion for 'people's jobs', and KRW 1.1981 trillion for 'life instability'.

In the field of youth life, the promotion of half-price tuition at private universities and support for rent for youth who do not own a home were emphasized. In the field of public safety, expansion of support for fire safety and protection of crime victims was emphasized. In the field of national livelihood, expansion of support for small business loans and support for the purchase of farmland for public rental were emphasized.

In the field of national employment, the establishment of local-led companies and insurance support for low-income platform workers were advocated, and in the field of life instability, the establishment of a 24-hour emergency alternative care system for the elderly, children, and the disabled and support for vouchers for care, housework, and hospital companion services were put forward.

Representative Jang criticized, “President Lee is waving with a rosy report card leaning on the semiconductor super cycle, presenting a hyper-inflated budget of 821 trillion won and creating a future response fund worth 162 trillion won,” adding, “All that enormous money is the people’s tax money. President Lee is trying to free up the coffers of the Republic of Korea that the people and companies have filled with their blood and sweat.”

Party leaders, including Secretary General Chung Hee-yong and Policy Committee Chairman Lim Ja, as well as members of the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Special Committee were present at the press conference on this day.

Criticism of the government's budget also poured out within the National Assembly.

Chief Spokesperson Park Chung-kwon said in a commentary, "The President's budget speech is nothing more than plundering the future under the guise of 'growth for all,'" and added, "We will continue to ask until the end whether 'growth for all' is proven by numbers rather than slogans."

Senior floor spokesperson Kim Tae-gyu also said in a commentary, "President Lee asked us to process the budget by December 2, but he can never put his stamp on the budget he presented by deceiving the people," and urged, "He should apologize to the people, starting with his false explanation that the 106 trillion won debt was 'almost nonexistent.'"