[Anchor]
At the parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Planning and Budget, the ruling and opposition parties sharply clashed again over the Future Response Fund. When the People Power Party demanded the fund be scrapped, calling it nothing more than the Lee Jae-myung administration's piggy bank designed to bypass the National Assembly's oversight, the government and the Democratic Party countered that the opposition is staging a political offensive against a fund established for future growth engines.
Reporter Kim Jin-woo reports.
[Reporter]
This morning (October 8) at the parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Planning and Budget.
When lawmakers from the People Power Party displayed picket signs calling for the withdrawal of the 162 trillion won Future Response Fund, Cho Seung-rae, chairman of the National Assembly Finance, Economy, and Planning Committee and a member of the Democratic Party, stepped in to restrain them.
[Cho Seung-rae / Chairman of the National Assembly Finance, Economy, and Planning Committee: "How can you put up this panel without any understanding or agreement? Please take it down, immediately."]
The session was disrupted as lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties walked out before returning.
People Power Party lawmakers sharpened their criticism of how the fund would be managed, arguing that the government's spending discretion would expand drastically, turning it into pocket money to be used at will.
[Lim I-ja / Lawmaker, People Power Party: "It is an irregular transfer account that bypasses the National Assembly's oversight. Furthermore, it is an overdraft account that steals the identity of future generations."]
[Park Hong-keun / Minister of Planning and Budget: "Launching such a political offensive does not alter the facts."]
[Lim I-ja / Lawmaker, People Power Party: "Isn't it just pocket money handed out by the government as it pleases? (That is never the case.)"]
The ruling party rallied to defend the fund, stating that it was created to address future tax revenue shortfalls and secure future growth engines.
[Moon Jin-seok / Lawmaker, Democratic Party: "To put it simply, it is a fund to guarantee future growth drivers. That is what it is."]
Meanwhile, at the audit of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), in response to questioning from the opposition regarding whether the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae had ordered the introduction of single-stock leveraged ETFs, FSC Chairman Lee Eog-weon replied that it was a decision made by the FSC itself, taking into account factors such as foreign currency outflows.
[Park Jun-tae / Lawmaker, People Power Party: "These single-stock leveraged ETFs—this was done under orders from Cheong Wa Dae, wasn't it?"]
[Lee Eog-weon / Chairman of the Financial Services Commission: "That is not true. As we have repeatedly stated, we gathered diverse opinions..."]
Ruling party lawmakers pushed back, calling claims of a Cheong Wa Dae decision a "conspiracy theory" and mere political wrangling. In contrast, the opposition criticized the audit as having ended up "toothless" after the effort to adopt key witnesses, including former Cheong Wa Dae Chief of Staff for Policy Kim Yong-beom, fell through.
(Video by Lee Seung-hwan, Shin Dong-hwan, Kim Yong-woo | Video Editing by Lee Seung-hee)
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