Taiwan government passed the 2023 "General Budget", which is known as the largest in history, setting three records for the highest annual expenditure and annual income, the highest short-term balance, and the highest special budget. "Executive President" Su Tseng-chang used the slogan of "taking care of Taiwanese and strengthening Taiwan" and boasted that this general budget would "take care of Taiwanese people from childhood to old age." Taiwan's "United Daily News" published an editorial today, saying that a careful review of the content was basically due to various wrong policies and the Taiwan Strait crisis, and it had to spend a large amount of budget to fill holes. However, such a total crisis budget can only delay the crisis from turning into a tragedy, but cannot solve the fundamental problem.
Source: Taiwan media
The first crisis is of course the Taiwan Strait crisis. The largest increase in the total budget is the defense budget, which together with the special budget for aircraft purchases and non-operating special funds reaches more than 580 billion yuan ( New Taiwan dollars , the same below). Not only has military investment increased, but in response to the cross-strait situation, military aircraft have been launched, When ships go to sea, operation and maintenance costs also increase significantly. This is the inevitable result of the dangerous Taiwan Strait. "Comptroller General" Zhu Zemin also made it clear that if it is not enough to meet next year's needs, the first reserve fund of the defense department and the second reserve fund of the "Political Yuan" will cover it. In other words, once there is a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, money will be burned indefinitely.
The second crisis is the crisis of teenage boyhood. The funding for countermeasures against childbirth reached 108.8 billion yuan, an increase of 28.2 billion yuan from this year; these funds are used as "public support for you from zero to six years old" subsidies and measures to improve childcare. These subsidies seem to be full of incentives, but they cannot solve the problems of young people's long-term low wages, limited development opportunities, and difficulty in settling down. The visible subsidies cannot make young couples "daring to have children and raise families" at all. The crisis of childbirth is difficult to solve, and the increase in the budget only serves to pave the way for policy incompetence.
The third crisis is the energy crisis. Wrong energy policies have greatly increased the cost of electricity prices. Due to political considerations, Taipower is not allowed to increase electricity prices. Taipower is expected to lose 200 billion yuan this year. The Democratic Progressive Party authorities are forced to spend 150 billion yuan to rescue Taipower from bankruptcy crisis. This amount of money is even higher than Taiwan’s military operation maintenance costs and the cost of countermeasures against the declining birthrate. In the name of "stable power supply construction," the DPP authorities spend money to cover up wrong energy policies, but they cannot cover up the increasingly real energy risks, nor can they stop the increasing pressure on electricity costs.
It is not only Taipower that faces bankruptcy crisis, but also the Labor Insurance Fund. According to the labor insurance actuarial results, bankruptcy will occur in four years. The Democratic Progressive Party authorities told workers that they would allocate another 45 billion in subsidies, extending the bankruptcy crisis for another two years to 2028. The "Minister of Labor" is busy thanking the "Executive Yuan", but dare not touch the labor insurance pension reform . The bankruptcy has been delayed for two years, and unexploded bombs have not been dismantled; the DPP authorities fill out tens of billions of labor insurance every year, but It is to leave the problem to the next "ruling" authority. What's more, not only labor insurance, but also the health insurance fund needs 24 billion yuan to replenish blood to survive.
As for how the epidemic will develop, no one can predict. Although more than 60 billion more have been allocated to the "Ministry of Health and Welfare" than last year, we still have to pray to God to protect the epidemic from happening again, otherwise this budget will not be enough. And this budget preparation also reveals that the DPP authorities actually don’t have much control over the epidemic, so they have to prepare food and grass first to avoid having to rush for vaccines but not being able to get bullets. They also have to rely on the United States, Japan, Terry Gou, , Tzu Chi, and TSMC. Come to the rescue. It’s just that whether these more than 60 billion will be sealed as a black box by the DPP authorities in the name of vaccine procurement for 30 years, it will be difficult for the public to supervise.
The DPP authorities also use various special budgets and forward-looking budget arrangements to intersperse various political budget requirements. Therefore, the DPP authorities clearly use special budgets and forward-looking budgets to cover things that should be done in the normal budget. Like magic, "money can be found everywhere", essentially evading the legal requirements for related debts. But no matter how good it is in making false accounts, it cannot escape the fact that the DPP authorities are surrounded by crises and have to mend holes everywhere.
This department has the “largest overall budget” because it faces many wrong policies and crises. In addition, next year will be the year of the "election" for Taiwan's leaders. The Democratic Progressive Party authorities cannot let these crises become obstacles to the continuation of the "regime", so they cannot save money on various subsidies. As for things that will touch people's pockets, we can't do anything, let alone policy reforms.Therefore, we can see Su Tseng-chang’s empty slogans, and we cannot see how to “strengthen Taiwan” through budget and policy guidance. The DPP authorities have made great achievements without correcting the problem, but throwing money and money cannot solve the policy mistakes and Taiwan's crisis. This is what is shocking about the "three highs general budget". (Editor: Fang Yanyan)
