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Key figures from the ruling Saenuri Party are calling on President-elect Park Geun-hye
to take a step back from some of her more ambitious campaign pledges... even before
she takes office.
They say... the president-elect needs to think more realistically... about ways to carry
out her welfare agenda.
Arirang's political correspondent Kim Yeon-ji has the details.
Ruling party lawmaker Chung Mong-joon told a joint session of leading party figures Wednesday
that President-elect Park's transition team should refrain from trying to fulfill all
of Park's campaign pledges at once.
"The presidential transition team should not be bound by Park's campaign pledges, but should
first set some priorities and then go about implementing them."
To reinforce his point, Chung referred to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former White House
Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama.
In his book, Emanuel said that, if President Obama had implemented all of his campaign
pledges, the U.S. would have gone bankrupt.
So what is the main source of concern?
President-elect Park is determined to keep her word and push for her welfare pledges
without raising taxes.
However, her pledges include cutting delinquent borrowers' debts by up to 70 percent, providing
free childcare for children up to age 5, and cutting college tuition fees in half, among
others.
These pledges would require huge amounts of government funding.
The ruling party's supreme council member Shim Jae-cheol has urged Park to think of
ways to water down her multi-billion dollar pledges.
The party's floor leader, Lee Hahn-koo, known as Park's mentor for economic matters, was
the first to express concern.
Lee said in December that Park would need to re-think some of her pledges once she got
elected, sitting down with opposition lawmakers to modify them to reflect financial and other
constraints.
"These arguments are, however, not well-received by opposition lawmakers. Some opposition lawmakers
strongly criticize the talks for not being bound by Park's campaign pledges, saying that
it's irresponsible of the ruling party to discuss how to slow down implementing the
pledges or possibly making changes to them before the launch of the new government."
Representative Roh Hoe-chan of the minor opposition Progressive Justice Party is one of them.
"If there were problems with pledges, the ruling party and Park Geun-hye should have
modified them before making promises. They didn't do that, and they are now saying the
pledges are not realistic and they would damage fiscal health. It's like they made false promises
to win the election."
Meanwhile, the chairman of Park's transition team, Kim Yong-joon, said Thursday that there
won't be any changes to Park's pledges, saying that sticking to the original pledges is the
right thing to do for people.
Kim Yeon-ji, Arirang News.