KMT’s Universal Cash Giveaway Bidding Would Spend Public Money, Critic Says

A proposed cash handout has become a political bidding contest, according to a Liberty Times commentary criticizing Taiwan’s Kuomintang.

Fu Kun-chi, the party’s legislative caucus leader, has discussed distributing NT$20,000 to NT$30,000 to every person. The proposal may sound like an effort to secure more money for the public, the writer argues, but it would use national finances rather than party funds.

Using an estimated population of about 23 million, the commentary puts the cost of a NT$20,000 payment at roughly NT$460 billion. A NT$30,000 payment would approach NT$690 billion. Those figures compare with the approximately NT$48 billion in central government budget cuts that the Kuomintang previously presented as evidence that it was protecting public finances.

The writer questions whether the party’s earlier claims about wasteful government spending represented genuine fiscal oversight or simply an effort to cut the governing party’s budgets. If the government cannot afford to spend freely, the commentary asks, where would the money for a cash distribution worth hundreds of billions of Taiwan dollars come from? If the country can afford NT$690 billion, it asks, why make such a show of cutting NT$48 billion?

The commentary says a responsible party should explain the source of the funds, whether borrowing would be required, and which infrastructure or welfare programs might lose money. It argues that politicians should not present taxpayers’ money as a gift from their own party. The author, identified as an independent commentator, says the dispute is about using public money to generate political gratitude.