The ruling Saenuri Party’s ill-prepared commitment to child care is backfiring ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. But the main opposition Democratic United Party finds itself in no position to feel schadenfreude. Its election pledges for welfare are a target of public criticism as well.

The ruling party’s predicament dates back to August, when it promised to provide subsidies for child care. It did so without seriously considering the administration’s budget constraints and the shaky finances of the metropolitan and provincial governments. It just wanted not to be outdone by the opposition party, which was promoting the provision of free school lunches ahead of the parliamentary and presidential elections this year.

The administration, which was in the process of drawing up the 2012 budget request, hastily prepared a package of matching funds for metropolitan and provincial governments providing child care subsidies.

Under the matching-fund program, each family with a child aged 2 or younger or a child aged 5 being sent to a nursery is entitled to the monthly payment of 200,000 won this year. The child care subsidies are set to cover those aged 3 or 4 next year.

The administration is set to fund 20 percent of the child care program in Seoul and 50 percent of those in the other metropolises and provinces. But their mayors and governors have decided that they cannot carry out the child care programs for children aged 2 or younger unless they are funded 100 percent with subsidies from the administration.

In response to these demands, the prime minister’s office has promised to create a task force on the funding of not just their child care programs but other welfare programs. But there will be no easy compromises, given the astronomical amounts of money the two parties have committed to spending on welfare.

One estimate of additional money the metropolises and provinces are demanding for this year is at 350 billion won. But that is a pittance when compared to the amounts of money the two parties have promised to spend additionally on welfare programs during the five years from 2013 ― 89 trillion won pledged by the ruling party and 165 trillion won by the opposition party.

From where will all the money come, if not from lenders, tax payers or both? It spells disaster either way. The dispute over child care funding should serve as a sobering reminder of what populism will do.