As the Diet continues deliberations on the ¥14 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2009 and related bills, it needs to scrutinize the content of the huge extra budget. When the fiscal 2009 main budget and the supplementary budget are combined, the total budget size will top ¥100 trillion for the first time. Accordingly, the nation's debt will snowball because the government has to rely on an issuance of national bonds to finance the budgets.
While measures to stimulate the economy are necessary, the government should bear in mind that its mounting debts will have to be paid back by future generations, and should refrain from lax spending.
A problematic feature of the fiscal 2009 supplementary budget is that it allocates as much as ¥4.36 trillion — about 30 percent of the budget — to 46 funds, 30 of them to be newly established. The fundamental principle of a budget is that money must be used in approved ways over a single year. The government, however, says that money in funds can be used "flexibly" for a longer period. This is troubling because the money allocated in this manner would, for all practical purposes, resemble a giant slush fund.