Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung, the far-left frontrunner in the ruling Democratic Party’s primary election, is getting closer to his goal of handing out stimulus checks to everyone in the province regardless of their income.
Conservative politicians are criticizing this as a proposal to buy votes using taxpayers’ money ahead of the presidential election in March and comparing Lee’s socialist programs to those that devastated Venezuela.
The Moon Jae-in administration recently announced plans to provide another round of stimulus checks to those in the bottom 88 percent of income with 250,000 won ($213) per person. Gov. Lee criticized the central government’s decision for excluding people in the top 12 percent of income and said he will provide the same amount of stimulus funds to everyone in the Gyeonggi Province.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly held a session on September 14 and passed the new budget proposal. This includes 634.8 billion won ($541.9 million) for providing stimulus checks to those in the top 12 percent income bracket. Out of the 37.6 trillion won ($32 billion) budget proposal, the amount allocated for the stimulus checks was one of the most controversial issues during the provincial assembly session.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Government first estimated that the number of residents who fall in the top 12 percent of income nationwide would be around 12.3 percent of the Gyeonggi population, or 1.66 million. The Gyeonggi government first proposed a 415.8 billion won ($354.9 million) budget for stimulus checks to the assembly on September 20. However, it turned out that, in fact, 18.6 percent of Gyeonggi residents fall in the top 12 percent income bracket based on the central government’s criteria. The budget was increased nearly 50 percent to 634.8 billion won ($541.8 million) and was conveyed to the assembly for consideration on September 25. Conservatives criticized the Gyeonggi Provincial Government for rushing the budget proposal without a thorough reviewing process.
Just like the Seoul City Assembly, more than 90 percent of the lawmakers in the Gyeonggi Assembly are from the ruling DP. Some provincial lawmakers from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) spoke out, but the debate was mostly between DP lawmakers divided into the pro-Lee Jae-myung and anti-Lee Jae-myung factions.
Some DP members argued that the budget proposal was not discussed thoroughly beforehand and said they should focus on helping people who are having more problems instead of the high-income citizens. On the other hand, some radical pro-Lee lawmakers even called to provide stimulus checks to foreigners residing in the Gyeonggi Province. There are around 570,000 foreigners residing in the region. It would cost another 117 billion won ($99.9 million) to offer them stimulus checks.
The National Assembly’s PPP lawmakers are attacking Lee for his populist policies such as universal basic income, public housing for 1 million households, and providing money to every female teenager aged between 11 and 18 to buy sanitary pads. They are comparing him to Hugo Chavez, the socialist leader who destroyed Venezuela.
Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, a key presidential candidate from the PPP, argued that “Hugo Chavez made oil-rich Venezuela the poorest country in the world by adopting various populist policies, and Lee Jae-myung is trying to deceive people just like Chavez did to ruin the Gyeonggi Province and eventually the Republic of Korea.” Hong added “Lee must stop this.”
Heo Eun-ah, a spokesperson from the PPP, also released a statement asking, “Is Gov. Lee really trying to become the Korean Chavez?”
“He is trying to use his position [as governor] and his province’s budget for his presidential election campaign,” she said.
Rep. Woo Won-sik, who is leading Lee’s election campaign team, argued that it is a diplomatic faux pas to compare local politicians with politicians from other countries that Korea has diplomatic ties with.
“Conservative candidates have been attacking each other for resembling Rodrigo Duterte from the Philippines and now they are trying to do the same thing with Gov. Lee,” he said. “Venezuela is a country that we have diplomatic ties with, as is the case for the Philippines. We might have different political stances but they were [or are] the head of legitimate countries. They should have some basic diplomatic manners.”
Meanwhile, a new poll showed that the top two PPP presidential candidates would beat the top two DP candidates in hypothetical two-way races. According to WinGKorea Consulting on September 14, Yoon Seok-yeol, former Prosecutor General under the Moon administration and key PPP candidate, received 46.4 percent of support, while Gov. Lee received 37.6 percent. The poll showed that support for Yoon was at 45.2 percent, 4.4 percentage points ahead of Rep. Lee Nak-yon, who was the former head of the DP. In another hypothetical race, Hong had 46.1 percent versus Gov. Lee’s 40.2 percent. Hong received 46.1 percent of support against Rep. Lee who received 39.9 percent.
Despite Lee’s efforts to use socialist policies to buy votes, it seems the public is clearly choosing the conservative side.
