Free day care, cheap tuition on DP’s welfare list

Shortly after the main opposition Democratic Party vowed free health care for all by 2015, it announced Wednesday an even more expansive - and expensive - platform of welfare policies.

The DP now wants to add a free nursery program and a half-priced college tuition program as part of its “comprehensive welfare plan,” which also includes free school lunches for students.

“An estimated 16.4 trillion won [$14.7 billion] is needed to finance the comprehensive welfare program annually and that includes a free school meal program,” said Jun Byung-hun, the DP’s chief policy maker, yesterday. “The comprehensive welfare program will increase disposable income of households and boost domestic demand. Then it will lead to a surge in investment and production. [The program] will be the start of a virtuous economic cycle. The comprehensive welfare program leads to economic growth and job creation.”

DP Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu urged the ruling Grand National Party to join the DP’s program.

“The GNP shouldn’t reject the comprehensive welfare program, which has emerged from the spirit of the times,” Sohn said. “Instead it should worry about how to join [DP’s] initiatives.”

Of the 16.4 trillion won price tag, the DP estimates 8.1 trillion won will be needed to finance a free public health service program, 4.1 trillion won for free nurseries, 1 trillion won for free school meals and 3.2 trillion for the half-price college tuition program, which aims to partially cover tuition expenses for college students based on their household income.

Under the program, which was mapped out at a meeting of senior DP officials yesterday, the DP wants to provide free kindergarten for all 5-year-olds. For parents of children up to age 4, the DP wants to pay for day care and preschool for the bottom 80 percent of income brackets.

DP officials, however, didn’t decide how to raise the 16.4 trillion won at yesterday’s meeting and decided to discuss it further.

The Grand National Party criticized the program as too “idealistic” and described it as a package of “populist policies” to win votes in presidential and general elections next year.

GNP officials said the DP program will face strong opposition from the people because it would lead to higher taxes, and the party declared a full-fledged war against what it called “populist policies.”

Former National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o said the term “free school lunch” should be changed to “taxpayer’s lunch.”

“There is no free lunch,” Kim said in a meeting with senior GNP officials Wednesday. “No one, I mean even Jesus or Buddha, can promise you free lunches.”

The GNP lost support in local elections last June because of the opposition’s welfare promises. The DP campaigned on providing free school lunches in public elementary school and is extending the program to middle and high schools across the country.

Political analysts said that if the GNP wants to win general and presidential elections next year, it must come up with its own welfare policies. GNP Chairman Ahn Sang-soo also ordered the party leadership to scrutinize the DP’s welfare package and come up with its own welfare program that’s distinct from the DP’s. In a meeting yesterday, the party invited Minister of Health and Welfare Chin Soo-hee to join the discussion.

“To start, for a free health care program as mapped out by the DP, 8 trillion won isn’t enough,” Chin said. “An extra 30 trillion is needed to finance the program. In this case, the cost of health insurance fees will be doubled and this will greatly burden both low- and high-income classes. The DP’s free public health program isn’t entirely free. It means asking the people to pay more taxes to enjoy more benefits.”

In a closed-door meeting with GNP councilors, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who is fighting against the DP-controlled Seoul Metropolitan Council’s free lunch program for schools in the capital, said he’ll risk his political life on the battle.

“This must be solved by a residents’ referendum,” Oh said.

By Kim Mi-ju [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]

Related Korean Article [중앙일보]
민주당 이용섭 “무상복지 쏟아낸다고 능사 아니다”
당내서도 포퓰리즘 논란
무상보육 당론 채택 유보

무상급식과 무상의료를 당론으로 채택한 민주당은 13일 무상보육 추진까지 당론으로 정하려 했으나 실패했다. 재원마련 방안 등에 대한 이견이 제기돼 당론 채택이 유보된 것이다. 무상급식·의료·보육의 3대 패키지에 대해 당에선 어느 정도의 공감대가 형성돼 있는 상태지만 그걸 동시에 추진하기 위한 확실한 재원대책을 내놓지 않을 경우 표를 의식한 ‘복지 포퓰리즘’에 빠져 있다는 비난을 면치 못할 것이라는 지적이 일부 의원들 사이에서 나오고 있다.

국세청장과 건설교통부 장관을 지낸 이용섭 의원은 의총에서 “재원조달 계획이 완벽하지 않으면 2년 내내 (여권 등이) 비판의 구실로 삼을 것”이라며 “복지 정책을 무조건 많이 쏟아내는 게 능사가 아니다”라고 말했다고 한다. 재정경제부 장관 출신인 강봉균 의원은 “경제의 큰 흐름을 먼저 읽고 무상복지 문제를 논의해야 한다”고 했고, 경제 문제에 밝은 김효석 의원도 “전체적인 복지 정책의 큰 원칙부터 세워야 한다”고 주장했다. 한 초선 의원은 “한나라당과 차별화한다는 의미는 있지만 대안세력으로서 신뢰를 높이려면 지킬 수 있는 방법으로 약속해야 한다”며 …

http://news.joins.com/article/815/4924815.html?ctg=