Lawmaker Woo Won-shik of the Democratic Party of Korea, who serves as Chair of the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Budget & Accounts, said on November 18 that approving the budget for the next year within the statutory deadline (December 2, 2022) will be “extremely difficult.”
Lawmaker Woo appeared on Kim Jong-bae’s Focus, an MBC radio show, and gave this answer when Kim asked him whether [the ruling party and the opposition] were likely to agree on and approve the budget by the statutory deadline. Woo added, “The ruling party and the opposition tend to differ a great deal over the budget during the transition of governments.”
The Special Committee on Budget & Accounts is deliberating the variations for the next year’s budget bill submitted by the government, which has passed the review by the relevant standing committee at the National Assembly. Under the law, the next year’s budget has to go through the deliberation of the Special Committee and be approved at the National Assembly plenary session by no later than December 2, 2022.
Woo said, “[Government] budget is usually drawn up by May, and it has not fully factored in the economic crisis for both the nation and the people. To transform it into a budget that can cope with the economic crisis, a lot of changes must be made, and I’m not sure how well the government and the ruling party will embrace them.”
While the ruling People Power Party argues that the leading opposition Democratic Party is “protesting against the outcome of the presidential election” using the majority power of the opposition, Woo said that was not the case. According to the lawmaker, there are many discussions and occasional confrontations because [the government] has greatly reduced [the budget] for people’s livelihood. He further said, “The ruling party’s floor leader is saying that the opposition is not accepting the outcome of our presidential election, dragging them down. That’s not the attitude we need now. Rather, he should persuade the opposition for the budgetary needs.”
The government and the ruling party discussed a provisional budget in case the bill should not be passed within the statutory deadline, and Woo criticized the idea as “truly arrogant.” He added, “They’re saying they’d use the provisional budget unless we do what they ask. The government and the ruling party must make every effort to persuade the opposition and approve the budget bill.”
“As far as I know, some are seriously asking whether the Democratic Party should consider an alternative of moving the [budget] amendment if they should keep behaving arrogant, talking about the provisional budget,” said Lawmaker Woo. “The government and the ruling party must not move toward intense confrontation and have an open mind so that all parties can close this discussion well, thinking about how to improve the people’s life.”
Woo’s remarks seem to urge the government and the ruling party to cooperate in approving the next year’s budget, implying that the Democratic Party may independently amend the budget bill and move it to the plenary session by using the majority they hold at the National Assembly.