Independent presidential candidate James Soong
Soong also said that a reasonable balance between revenue and expenditure under the guidance of a small but effective government was the best policy.
He proposed allowing the public to buy stakes in privatized state-run enterprises to prevent the formation of future monopolies.
Norman Yin
Soong was in Hsinchu County talking to farmers prior to the release of his guidelines. In his meeting with the farmers, Soong stressed his intention to see the price of rice rise from NT$20,000 per ton to NT$33,000 per ton.
He also said the government should not spend money without first considering how much money it had coming in. "And a person cannot make policy promises on a whim," Soong said.
He criticized Lien and Chen for offering welfare proposals which neglected existing financial conditions and called their proposed "programs'' nothing more than campaign stunts.
"If Lien's promises are to be counted in with national expenses, including the NT$100 billion housing loan fund and the preferential loan rate for first-time house buyers, there will be NT$2 trillion in extra expenses that will have to be dealt with," he said.
Soong went on to criticize the KMT government as inefficient. He said when former president Chiang Ching-kuo
Soong said that government policy should not be like "adding an extra flower to the bouquet," but "bringing in coal to keep the home fires burning in winter."
Soong said the government is not omnipotent -- it is the people within a society that have the ability to understand and use the resources of a nation with the most efficiency. The government should not spend without considering the consequences, he said.
In addition to expressing his concerns over what he feels are excessive social welfare programs, Soong focused on the distribution of such benefits.
He said the central government had handed off debt to local counties so it could claim an improved financial condition. He said it was common for the central government to pass a law, without providing funding, that local governments must then implement.
"It's as if the central government said it would treat the people to dinner, but the meal was actually paid for by someone else," Soong said. This has had a deteriorating effect on the financial situations at the local level, he said.
Soong promised to consider raising the salaries of government employees (including teachers, public servants and those in the military). These groups have not had their pay adjusted in more than two years, he said.
But the KMT has been raising the salaries of the party representatives as well as borough and village chiefs because they helped to "facilitate the gathering of votes," he said.
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