The Democratic Party is speeding up the 'January Supplementary Budget' (additional supplementary budget bill).
Considering the damage to small business owners caused by the three-week extension of high-intensity social distancing last week, they are in the position to proceed with the review and processing of the supplementary budget as soon as possible.
Moreover, as the presidential election campaign officially starts on the 15th of next month, it is determined that it is necessary to hold an extraordinary National Assembly before that to handle the supplementary budget bill.
Accordingly, it is reported that the Democratic Party and the government held a private party meeting on the morning of the 17th and discussed the specific size and contents of the supplementary budget.
Park Wan-joo, chairman of the policy committee, met with reporters before attending the party government meeting on the same day and said, "The sooner the better, the sooner, the better, but let's get it done within the extraordinary National Assembly at the latest."
The Democratic Party has in mind a schedule to hold an extraordinary parliamentary session at least on the 3rd of next month to process the supplementary budget bill around the 14th.
The government also sympathizes with the speedy handling of the supplementary budget in consideration of the suffering of small business owners and the self-employed.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance is planning to come up with a plan to form an additional budget worth 14 trillion won this week and complete the resolution at the Cabinet meeting.
However, it is known that there is a difference of opinion between the political parties about the size of the supplementary budget.
The Democratic Party is in the position that the size of the supplementary budget should be expanded from 14 trillion won.
It is reported that the Democratic Party also demanded that the government's additional quarantine subsidy be increased by 3.2 million people and 3 million won in the party's meeting on the same day.
As the high-intensity quarantine measures have been in place for a long time, the logic is that thick quarantine subsidies should be paid, and there should be no blind spots such as small business owners and the self-employed who do not receive compensation for their losses.
Previously, Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung also expressed dissatisfaction with the government's announcement of the supplementary budget on the 14th, saying, "I did a little bit more."
People's Power Candidate Yoon Seok-yeol also said, "3 million won is nonsense and (should) be on a much larger scale," adding strength to the increase.
However, the Democratic Party believes that it is not easy to increase the size of the supplementary budget to the 25 trillion and 50 trillion won levels mentioned by Candidate Lee and Candidate Yoon, respectively.
Considering the position of general taxpayers, it is necessary to increase the amount within a 'line that the public can understand'.
Chairman Park emphasized that "there is a need to look closely at the point that the reference point is set at Articles 50 and 25 and Article 14 is said to be small," he said.