Cabinet Secretary-General Liu Shih-fan (劉世芳) yesterday dismissed speculation that the Cabinet's two proposed job-creation programs were created to win over the public's support for the DPP in the 2004 presidential election.
"Even if we had the intent, wouldn't it just make more sense to give out money directly to the unemployed instead of making the effort to enact two new bills pending the approval of the legislature?" Liu said.
"Honestly speaking, we prefer to give people a fishing rod instead of feeding them with fish," he said.
Liu was responding to recent criticism from KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), who has slammed the programs as a ploy by the DPP administration to use tax money to woo supporters for the 2004 presidential election.
"It's obvious that the DPP government is manipulating the public to turn the heat on the legislature," Lien said during the KMT's weekly Central Standing Committee meeting last Thursday. "It's like the Executive Yuan is forcing the legislative body to have sex with it," he said.
Liu, in his remarks, also dismissed a proposal made by PFP lawmaker Thomas Lee (李桐豪) yesterday, according to which the government would issue NT$5,000 as a Lunar New Year bonus to every unemployed person aged 30 or over who had lost their job involuntarily.
In addition to defending the government's policy, Liu called on the opposition lawmakers to accelerate the passage of the two special budget bills during the remaining eight days of the legislative session.
"We'll continue to negotiate with opposition parties and we're willing to make any reasonable adjustments if necessary," Liu said.
The legislature is scheduled to recess on Jan. 14 and reconvene in mid-February. Four legislative committees are scheduled to review the two bills today.
If all goes according to the government's plan, the bills may proceed to the second and possibly third readings on Friday.
Once the bills are passed, Liu said, the Cabinet will send the special budgets for the two one-year bills to the legislature for approval as soon as the next legislative session reconvenes.
DPP lawmaker Hong Chi-chang (洪其昌), however, said that he is not optimistic about the passage of the two bills.
"As it's rather hard for all members of the four committees to attend the review session, the two bills might fall at the first hurdle without getting to the plenary session on Friday," he said.
The Executive Yuan on Dec. 18 approved the NT$70 billion projects, aiming to create a total of 115,000 jobs, drive the economic growth rate up to 3.52 percent this year, as well as lower the unemployment rate to below 4.5 percent.
The Cabinet wants the measures paid for with special budgets, which would exempt it from legal limits on the amount of money the government can borrow.
Opposition parties, however, preferred to amend the public debt law to raise the debt limit or to raise the fund with additional spending. Some have even proposed to expand the projects to NT$100 billion.
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