|
DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa spoke to the press in the early afternoon of February 16 in Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture and referred to the government's consideration of a supplementary budget to follow the main 2009 budget and also to the strange remarks made by Minister Nakagawa at the G7 meeting.
Ozawa began by referring to the government's intention of passing a supplementary budget immediately after the enactment of the fiscal
2009 budget saying, "since the main budget is still under deliberation, if the government thinks that further economic measures are needed then they should make significant modifications to the current budget." He criticized the government's approach: "talking about the supplementary budget while the current budget debate is still ongoing is an unacceptable way to proceed".
Ozawa pointed out that "if the government thinks that their current budget proposals are insufficient then they should make modifications to the budget to propose a major economic stimulus. We might not necessarily agree with the content, but we could at least agree with the process. All the government needs to do is change their current proposals". He said that in this case, the DPJ would not delay the debate process in order to ensure that the budget proposal could be completed by the end of the fiscal year.
Ozawa continued by showing his frustration at the government's disorganized approach saying, "It is as if the government is simply admitting that the current budget will not be sufficient to stimulate the economy. I think this is extremely strange." He added that due to the current economic situation, the DPJ was in the process of deciding whether to include additional economic stimulus measures in its current manifesto or whether to announce additional, separate economic measures, but that in either case some action would be required.
Finally, referring to the explanation by Finance Minister Nakagawa that his unfortunate performance at the recent G7 press conference was "because the medicine I had been taking took effect, not because I was drinking alcohol", Ozawa pointed out, "a minister who is responsible for looking after the people's finances must, as a minister and as a finance minister, take responsibility for being unable to normally answer questions on the world stage. He has an extremely grave responsibility for presenting himself in that state before the world's media.
It is an extremely embarrassing incident. He said that he would consult with the DPJ members in both houses, particularly the Secretary General, Diet Affairs Committee chair and other senior DPJ officials, before deciding exactly what action to take concerning this incident.
|
.jpg)
