Diet debate begins on bill to issue deficit-covering bonds
TOKYO —
The lower house began deliberations Tuesday on a set of bills, including one to issue deficit-covering bonds to fund the fiscal 2012 budget.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda urged opposition parties to cooperate for a swift enactment of the bills, NHK reported. Both the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito have repeatedly said that they will not support the bills and urged Noda to dissolve the lower house and call a general election.
Noda said the bills must be enacted to stabilize the nation’s finances. He said it is irresponsible for opposition parties not to cooperate and that blocking the bills will hinder recovery efforts in the Tohoku region, NHK reported.
The deficit-covering bonds will cover 40% of the revenue for the fiscal 2012 budget bill. However, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) doesn’t have a majority in the lower house, so an early enactment of the bill seems unlikely.
Noda is also facing divisions within his own party from opponents of the government’s plan to raise the consumption tax.
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3 Comments
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1
some14some
ok then no budget from 2012 onward....or these two parties will arrange private funds?
-1
Elvensilvan
With the trend things are going on in the diet, I think the next PM's gonna be neck-deep in hot oil regarding budget, reconstruction, US base, oil supply, TEPCO, compensation, nen kin, and other problems.
0
Patrick Hattman
As the money necessary to pay the interest on the debt continues to take a bigger slice of the budget pie each year, and the part for social welfare eats away in ever larger bites at the remainder, Japan will continue on its slide down the chart of world economic powers.
Successive governments for two decades have had few, if any, really good ideas to improve the country's economic situation which is dire in recent years.
Look for a new prime minister and an administration soon that will talk about real, positive change for a few months or so, but the end result will just be more and more trouble for Japan.
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