The summer lull in the partisan fighting over various policy issues will soon come to an end as lawmakers started signing up for the new session yesterday.
The TSU, the tiny ally of the DPP, demanded that Minister of Finance Lee Yung-san (
Meanwhile, the KMT called on the Cabinet to voluntarily take back next year's budget, which it said is full of deceiving figures meant to hide the nation's financial troubles.
PHOTO: LIAO RAY-SHIAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Jumping on the bandwagon, the PFP vowed to give the administration a rough ride when the budgetary review begins later this month.
During a collective registration, legislators from the TSU said they oppose offshore banking unit (OBU) operations proposed by the finance ministry to help local investors conduct business in China.
"Oppose OBU! Down with Lee Yung-san," they chanted.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance indicated it is mulling introducing the OBU mechanism in line with a consensus reached by last year's Economic Development Advisory Conference.
But TSU legislative leader Su Ying-kwei (
"Such a practice, if allowed, would encourage investors to migrate to China and leave their debts in Taiwan," Su said.
Fellow TSU Legislator Liao Pen-yan (
Chen Chien-ming (
Because an executive order would suffice to carry out the OBU plan, the fledgling party threatened to sap the ministry's power through legal revisions, if necessary.
In addition, the 12-member caucus said it would continue pushing for a referendum law that allows the people to have the final say on major policy disputes, political and economic.
The KMT, on the other hand, accused the DPP administration of manipulating the figures when preparing next year's budget and urged the Cabinet to withdraw the plan on its own accord.
According to KMT Legislator Wang Chun-yu (
KMT Legislator Cheng Feng-shih (
"The government must quit playing Santa Claus at the [expense of the] nation's financial health," he said.
Recently, the Cabinet said it would extend the senior-citizen stipend to retired workers with money earmarked for the national pension program.
The KMT, though supportive of expanding the NT$3,000-per-month allowance to more groups, frowns on the proposal to borrow money from the national pension fund.
The PFP said it would play the bad cop during the budgetary review in light of the low efficiency with which the government executed last year's budget. PFP legislative leader Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) cited official statistics that show various government agencies failed to carry out their spending programs for last year.
She noted that during the fiscal period, the reserve capital for the Ministry of Transportation and Communications was NT$38.5 billion.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Council of Agriculture trailed in second and third with NT$9.6 billion and NT$5.5 billion, respectively, the lawmaker said.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
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US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
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