InfoHandle Editorial: Opposition lawmakers are treating the Executive Yuan’s NT$607.6 billion supplemental budget as a single bargaining chip for election-year cash promises, yet the lines that keep fuel and electricity subsidies flowing deserve their own vote — not a package veto aimed at headline handouts.
Separating schedules would also make it easier for citizens to see which lawmakers voted for stabilization even if they opposed larger cash rebates, restoring a measure of accountability that omnibus votes currently obscure.
What the supplement actually funds
Premier Cho Jung-tai has warned that without timely passage, top-ups for military personnel, civil servants, teachers, and social-welfare allowances could lapse, while state-owned CPC Corp. and Taipower lose the headroom they use to smooth pump prices and industrial tariffs. China Times reporting on Hualien reconstruction highlights how even disaster-recovery entries inside the same bill become hostages: Kuomintang caucus leaders must choose between scrutinizing NT$70 billion in Matai’an River work and being accused of blocking their own districts.
That coupling is politically convenient but fiscally reckless. Voters may disagree on NT$10,000 versus NT$20,000 rebate proposals, yet few want petrol volatility or classroom stipends to expire because negotiators merged unrelated chapters.
Institutional damage
Taipei Times editorials note the new legislature opened with opposition lawmakers absent for the premier’s policy address, then rejecting all 27 Control Yuan nominees. Tactical boycotts may rally bases, but they leave watchdog and energy agencies without confirmed leadership while the supplementary clock ticks.
Separating Taipower and CPC chapters would force transparent debate on whether stabilization spending is sized correctly after summer fuel shocks, instead of hiding the numbers inside a mega-package framed around consumer rebates.
A workable compromise
Ruling and opposition negotiators could agree to fast-track energy and civil-service lines through committee while continuing to litigate handout sizes on the floor. That preserves the Executive Yuan’s ability to keep price buffers operating through winter while giving lawmakers a clear recorded vote on cash transfers.
Taiwan’s voters are sophisticated enough to understand two ledgers. Lawmakers should stop pretending a single supplemental veto protects them from hard choices — it only raises the odds that essential stabilization spending fails alongside the policies they dislike.