Hsieh holds back on budget request

Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) decided to hold back on filing a request that the Legislature reconsider the Cabinet's annual budget yesterday, after he realized that he did not have the full support of the Presidential Office.

After the Legislature made the decision to cut two-thirds from the Cabinet's annual budget proposal on Thursday, Cabinet Secretary-General and Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) responded by saying that the Cabinet would definitely file a request asking the Legislature to reconsider the budget proposal during the next session. Although Hsieh did not make any announcement echoing Cho's comments at the time, he said that he was "seriously considering" the idea.

Hsieh and Cho scheduled a press conference for late Friday night when they had finished discussing the issue with other Cabinet members.

The press conference, however, was later canceled.

Sources said that Hsieh decided to hold back on the idea because he realized that he did not have the full support of the Presidential Office on the issue.

Although Hsieh visited Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) on Friday night, he did not express his gratitude toward Wang and his fellow lawmakers, nor did he mention anything about the request to reconsider the budget.

Cho said that he could not make the contents of the conversation between the premier and the president public. But he told reporters that the president was not too keen on the idea of asking the Legislature to reconsider the budget because it would require the agreement of half of the legislative floor.

"As a result, we are not too confident about it, either," he said.

The secretary-general and spokesman said that Hsieh was busy meeting with Cabinet members and discussing whether they should file the request throughout the day yesterday and a final decision would be made by tomorrow.

According to analysis in a report by the local Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday, Cho said the president might take advantage of the statement the premier made on Friday, when he said "if the Cabinet's request to reconsider the budget is declined by the Legislature, I will take the political responsibility," to relieve Hsieh of his position. Cho said the final decision on whether to file the request has nothing to do with protecting the premier's position.

"To file the request is just the way we handle things. It is not the end goal we are looking for," Cho said. "As government officials, we need money in order to work for the people, so we must do this anyway."