[Editorial] Where is the budget?

The National Assembly is still embroiled at a battle over the first budget proposal for next year by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. Due to the contentious issue of lowering the corporate tax rate, no significant progress was made between the People Power Party (PPP) and the Democratic Party (DP) in passing next year’s budget. The DP holding a majority in the 300-member legislature threatened to push its own revision to the budget bill if the conservative government and the PPP do not make concessions.

Rep. Park Hong-geun, floor leader of the DP, criticized President Yoon for “treating the legislature simply as sidekicks to the administration.” He vowed to thwart the PPP from passing a bill aimed at lowering the corporate tax and submit its own revision to the budget proposal. National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo fixed the deadline for passing the budget bill on Thursday.

In principle, the opposition cannot increase any budgets without consent from the government. The DP also threatened to pass an accessory bill to cut corporate tax for small and mid-sized companies while vehemently opposing the PPP’s plan to lower our current maximum corporate tax rate for large companies from 25 percent. Such strange developments in the legislature are unprecedented.

Given President Yoon’s determination to pass a bill to lower the corporate tax for large companies, the PPP can hardly change its position. If Speaker Kim does not extend the deadline to pass next year’s budget, the DP will likely pass its own bill, unilaterally. In that case, all effort to strike a deal on the levels of standing committees and the special committee on the budget and accounts will be futile.

If the DP passes its own bill, the government must spend within the limits next year. Another heated battle over the government’s proposals for a supplementary budget is also anticipated. All the chaos can be attributed to the domineering ways of the DP to help protect its head from a plethora of judicial risks and to the non-compromising attitude of the PPP controlled by hard-liners.

A bigger problem is massive political repercussions of the unilateral passing of next year’s budget. Neither party is free from responsibility for the crisis. President Yoon’s ambitious drive to reform the overly rigid labor market and the national health insurance system also can be realized through legislation in the Assembly.

The DP must be blamed for its high-handed approach to all issues after being elated by its majority status. No one wants the National Assembly to go adrift due to the expected stalemate in the legislature from vehement battles between the two major parties. We urge them to make a dramatic turnaround before it’s too late.