Power struggle ahead of supplementary budget battle: Ruling party calls for "swift passage," opposition denounces "populism"

As the Lee Jae-myung administration prepares to draw up this year’s first supplementary budget to respond to the Middle East crisis, the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea is also expected to enter a full-fledged "supplementary budget battle" starting in April.
The Democratic Party of Korea plans to support the administration’s governance by swiftly formulating and reviewing the supplementary budget. In contrast, the People Power Party (PPP) has branded it a "supplementary budget for the local elections" and has vowed to subject it to rigorous scrutiny.
According to political sources on the 15th, the government is expected to prepare a supplementary budget of between 15 trillion and 20 trillion won as early as April.
Thanks to higher-than-expected tax revenue driven by a semiconductor boom, the government intends to move quickly to compile a supplementary budget to cope with high oil prices. The exact size of the extra budget has not yet been finalized.
The Democratic Party of Korea has pledged active support for the government’s supplementary budget plan and has signaled a "race against time." The party argues that if the Middle East crisis drags on and raises the risk of a global economic downturn, the country must prepare through a supplementary budget.
Jin Sung-joon, who was elected chair of the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts at the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea on the 12th, stated, "As stock indices and export figures show, our economy had entered a recovery phase under the new administration, but the sudden Middle East crisis has once again flashed a red warning light." He added, "I believe we must swiftly compile a supplementary budget to put out the most urgent fires first."
The Emergency Economic Response Task Force on the Middle East Crisis, scheduled to meet on the 16th, is expected to discuss issues related to the supplementary budget.
The People Power Party (PPP) plans to block what it calls a government–ruling party–driven "race" to push through the supplementary budget.
A key PPP official argued that the ruling camp is attempting "populism" to tilt the June 3 local elections in its favor. He warned, calling it "a politically motivated cash handout that raids the national coffers to buy votes," and added, "Stop this cowardly politics that raids the wallets of the next generation just to take credit now."
Policy Committee Chairperson Jeong Jeom-sik noted, "We must also keep in mind that reckless fiscal expansion can heighten the risk of so-called stagflation, in which an economic downturn and rising prices occur at the same time." Park Su-young, a PPP lawmaker who serves as executive secretary for the party on the Strategy and Finance Committee, harshly criticized the plan, saying, "At a time of excess liquidity, when the Middle East crisis is already dragging down the value of the won, the idea of pumping even more money into the economy is pure ‘vote-populism.’"
The PPP’s stance is not to oppose the very idea of a supplementary budget, but to subject any government proposal to intense scrutiny. A senior party official stressed, "Since progressive administrations have repeatedly used supplementary budgets for vote-buying populism, such as the Consumption Coupon program, we must now examine these kinds of expenditures with a fine-tooth comb."
haeram@fnnews.com Lee Haeram Reporter