People Power Party floor leader Jeong Point-sik said the Lee Jae-myung administration has chosen "extreme fiscal expansion," arguing that the government's current approach makes it difficult to rein in consumer prices and property values.
Speaking on the 8th in a parliamentary address as leader of his negotiating bloc, Jeong criticized the spending plan. "National debt has passed 1,300 trillion won, yet the government has unveiled a super budget of 820 trillion won," he said. "Is this saying you will put out a fire by spraying gasoline on it?"
He also pointed to a mismatch between the government's fiscal expansion and the Bank of Korea's monetary policy. "The Bank of Korea has raised the base rate for two consecutive months, and it now stands at 3.0%," he said. "The central bank raises rates to contain inflation while the government fans the flames. It is truly a grotesque theater of the absurd."
Jeong also took aim at the plan to create a Future Response Fund worth up to 162 trillion won. "The government is trying to set up a Future Response Fund on the pretext of excess tax revenue from the semiconductor boom," he said. "It means the government intends to spend money as it pleases, bypassing the National Assembly's budget oversight."
He questioned the borrowing plan in particular. "You have secured more than 200 trillion won in excess tax revenue, so why issue another 106 trillion won in new government bonds?" he asked. "Why take on more debt while saying you have earned money?"
"When excess tax revenue comes in, repaying government bonds first is the principle of the National Finance Act," he said. "Running fiscal policy as if there were no tomorrow, as we are doing now, ultimately passes the debt on to future generations. This is not future response but future plunder."
He also called for an end to what he described as the reckless handing out of consumption coupons. "Tens of trillions of won have been scattered at the slightest excuse in the name of livelihood support payments, but livelihoods have not improved at all," Jeong said. "On the contrary, it is a policy pickpocket that only pushes up prices and lightens the wallets of low- and middle-income households."
"Self-employed business owners are in this much difficulty, yet last month the government signaled a reduction in the card sales deduction for small business owners," he said. "It hands out a trickle of consumption coupons up front while cutting deductions from behind to collect more taxes."
Jeong characterized the policies of the government and the governing party as ushering in an "era of darkness," and laid out the policy tasks his party will pursue. They include restoring prosecutors' supplementary investigation authority; abolishing inheritance and gift taxes between spouses; introducing new asset-building savings accounts for young adults; scrapping early voting and extending the main polling period; removing regulations on private-sector redevelopment and rebuilding projects; cutting acquisition taxes and providing ultra-low-interest loans for first-time home purchases by young adults and newlyweds; ending reductions in old-age pension payments tied to earned income; overhauling the pension system to make it sustainable; and prioritizing debt repayment when excess tax revenue arises.
