GNP faces tough budget backlash

By Kang Hyun-kyung The government and the governing Grand National Party (GNP), which unilaterally passed next year’s budget last week, have decided to increase funding for a templestay program and two other projects to levels that the party had promised earlier, according to officials Monday. The move came as the GNP is facing a severe backlash for railroading the 309.1 trillion won ($270.2 billion) budget through the National Assembly without ensuring money for key projects it had vowed to keep. GNP Chairman Ahn Sang-soo also said his party would make all-out efforts to encourage ministries to implement the social services that his party pledged. The main opposition Democratic Party (DP), while continuing its street protests, submitted a resolution that calls for scrapping the endorsed budget bill for 2011 and deliberating a revised spending plan at the Assembly. "The budget legislation is null and void due to procedural problems," the DP said in the resolution. In a public speech at Seoul Plaza, Monday, Sohn Hak-kyu, chairman of the DP, demanded that the government urge Cabinet ministers not to approve the bill to prevent it from taking effect. Senior lawmakers of the GNP, however, dismissed this, arguing that modification is possible only when the bill is not approved in parliament. They claimed that as the bill already has been okayed, changes are not allowed. A day earlier, the GNP’s chief policy-maker, Rep. Ko Heung-kil, stepped down to take responsibility for the negative fallout of his party’s railroading the bill. His resignation came against the backdrop of growing criticism that the approval of the budget came at the cost of welfare and social policy spending. The DP alleged that spending for working-class families was largely slashed, while the budget for the four-river project remained intact. DP lawmakers also insisted that Rep. Lee Sang-deuk of the GNP, an older brother of President Lee Myung-bak, secured a great deal of spending that will be spent in his constituency of Pohang. In an effort to counter the accusations, GNP lawmakers noted that spending for after school programs and childcare went up, alleging the DP misled the public by distorting the facts. Meanwhile, the government announced that it will spend 57 percent of next year’s budget in the first half in an effort to boost the economic recovery. The budget front-loading plan will apply to government projects, fund operation and business plans by state-run enterprises, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. The government set aside 177.9 trillion won (US$155.2 billion) and 34.6 trillion won for its business projects and fund operation, respectively. Detailed business spending plans for state-run companies have yet to be decided.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr