Press conference on president's budget policy speech for fiscal 2027

Jeong Jeom-sik: 'Extorting money from businesses to throw a lavish party'

Im Yi-ja: 'Not a trace of minimal reflection or responsibility'

People Power Party Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik holds a press conference at the National Assembly on Monday regarding President Lee Jae Myung's budget policy speech for fiscal 2027. [Yonhap]
People Power Party Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik holds a press conference at the National Assembly on Monday regarding President Lee Jae Myung's budget policy speech for fiscal 2027. [Yonhap]

The People Power Party escalated its attacks Monday, denouncing President Lee Jae Myung's budget policy speech for fiscal 2027 as "a declaration of future plunder steeped in populism and fiscal addiction."

PPP Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik made the remarks at a press conference at the National Assembly that afternoon, reserving particular fire for the proposed Future Response Fund, which he called "a budget of irresponsible, extremist populism."

"The government has used a temporary surge in tax revenue from the semiconductor boom as a pretext to build a structure of perpetually rising expenditure," Jeong said. "The National Assembly Budget Office has analyzed that the additional tax revenue — the fund's largest source of financing — will not materialize after 2029."

He went on to say that "the Future Response Fund is nothing more than a two-to-three-year debt binge," and criticized 61 projects worth 18.3 trillion won ($13.7 billion) under the fund as simply rebranded versions of existing programs.

Jeong said the budget allocated for expanding the semiconductor production base amounted to only 2 trillion won, adding: "This is about extorting money from businesses to throw a lavish party."

He went on to say that "common sense dictates that the 104 trillion won in idle reserves within the fund should be used to reduce national debt," and pressed further: "Why is the government insisting on holding on to that 104 trillion won? Is it being kept as a slush fund to hand out money right before the 2028 general election?"

Jeong also argued that the president should have opened the budget speech with an apology. "The president should first have apologized for the government's mismanagement of real estate, shares and other areas, and declared an end to populism," he said. "Instead, the president pushed ahead with a declaration of extreme fiscal expansion without a word of reflection or apology."

PPP policy committee chairperson Im Yi-ja said Lee's budget speech showed "not a trace of minimal deliberation or sense of responsibility."

Im noted that while the government had announced next year's budget at 820.9 trillion won, it also intended to hold on to 104.4 trillion won in idle reserves from the newly created Future Response Fund. "That means the actual fiscal package being put before the people reaches a staggering 925 trillion won," Im said.

Im added that the government had in effect expanded this year's national budget of 720 trillion won by roughly 200 trillion won in one stroke. "Taxpayers' hard-earned money is not the ruling party's pocket change," Im said, vowing to conduct "a thorough, needle-sharp budget review."

PPP policy committee vice chairperson Park Soo-young also said, "In watching budget policy speeches for more than 40 years, this is the first time I have seen a president tell outright lies in an official address."

Park explained that the government planned to issue 222.8 trillion won in treasury bonds next year, of which roughly half — 110.7 trillion won — would cover rollovers of maturing debt and be reissued in the same amount. "The remaining half, 106.1 trillion won, represents a straight increase in national debt," Park said.

"A massive 106 trillion won is being added to the national debt, yet the president speaks as if it barely exists — could that be because so much money was consumed in the Daejang-dong affair?" Park said.


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