Criticizing Blue and White as illegal and unconstitutional! Chung Chia-bin: Opening wide the door to "I treat, you pay" false welfare checks

DPP Legislator Kuo-Pin Chung. (File photo)

With the local elections countdown underway, the KMT and TPP continue to push for various vote-buying bills in the Legislative Yuan to rescue their election prospects. According to statistics, the four major bills pushed by the KMT and TPP in the legislature—exempting citizens aged 65 and over from National Health Insurance premiums, distributing NT$20,000 in cash to everyone, increasing senior farmer allowances, and increasing national pensions—will cost the government at least NT$600 billion a year. DPP Legislator Johnny Chiang (Note: referring to legislator Chung Chia-pin) stated that robbing Peter to pay Paul is no solution; by sacrificing supplementary budgets closely related to people's livelihoods and disregarding price stability and national defense security, the opposition parties are essentially tearing down their own walls to invite passing thieves in.

Chung pointed out that the opposition parties, holding a majority in the legislature, repeatedly ignore the provisions of Article 70 of the "Constitution," Article 91 of the "Budget Act," and the "Public Debt Act" (Note: referring to the Fiscal Discipline Act), and are determined to boycott the Executive Yuan's version while forcefully passing their own pork-barrel versions. Examples including the "Senior Citizens Welfare Act," the "Temporary Act for Senior Farmer Allowances," or the "National Pension Act" are numerous. They blindly demand that the central government provide subsidies and allowances beyond its capacity without pointing out available funding sources, which is not only illegal but also unconstitutional.

Chung emphasized that with the elections approaching, the opposition parties desperately need to use welfare checks to win support. Using crude legislative amendments coupled with grandiose rhetoric, they superficially claim to raise welfare for some economically disadvantaged groups, but in reality, they are hollowing out the country's long-term fiscal foundation, destroying the tax fairness system, and causing socio-economic turmoil. The ultimate victims will still be the people at the bottom. The hard-earned tax money of the people is being used by the KMT and TPP to cash their own election checks. Such "I treat, you pay" false welfare checks will surely be rejected by discerning voters, he believes.