Two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators voiced opposition yesterday to "pork barrel" bills proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers that they said would only benefit military veterans and their dependents.
In a joint statement, DPP legislators Chuang Ho-tzu (莊和子) and Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) said KMT lawmakers have been pushing 11 "pork barrel" bills, including housing subsidies that favor military veterans and their families.
Saying that the majority of Taiwanese are not responsible for "feeding" a handful of Mainlander veterans who came to Taiwan more than four decades ago, Chuang and Chai urged all pan-green legislators and novice pan-blue lawmakers, to block the bills from being passed.
Chuang said the 11 bills would cost NT$1.8 trillion (US$55.73 billion) if they became law. He said there was no need for Taiwanese, who comprise more than four-fifths of the population, to pay for the daily needs of Mainlander veterans, who number less than one-tenth of the population.
The NT$1.8 trillion, Chuang said, could be spent on more pressing needs, such as national defense, education or social work.
Chai said that more than 10,000 veterans have retained their household registrations in Taiwan but live in China, while the number of veterans who return from China in January and July to pick up their regular government pensions is more than 50,000.
KMT lawmakers have proposed an amendment to an act governing the reconstruction of veterans and military dependents' houses that says some 350,000 veterans who do not live in military residential compounds should still be entitled to special housing subsidies. The amendment was approved in a first reading in the legislature on Jan. 8.
The amendment would require more than NT$1 trillion to subsidize the reconstruction of military residential compounds that have been built since the 1950s.
Chuang and Chai said the amendment was a pan-blue bid to curry favor with veterans ahead of next year's legislative and presidential elections.
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