00:00Taiwan's legislature gets heated as ruling and opposition lawmakers scream at each other
00:09and trade barbs on the podium.
00:18At a legislative procedure committee meeting, lawmakers argue over everything from a proposed
00:25$40 billion U.S. Special Defense Budget to a motion to impeach President Lai Qingde.
00:31The main opposition, Kuomintang, says it won't even consider the proposed budget
00:35until Lai answers lawmakers' questions about the spending plan.
00:38Getting President Lai to deliver a State of the Nation report to the legislature
00:56and answering lawmakers' questions has long been a goal of the opposition.
01:01The presidential office has said that Lai is willing to speak to the legislature,
01:05but that answering lawmakers' questions is unconstitutional.
01:15Meanwhile, the impeachment proposal has passed the committee
01:18and will now go to the legislative floor.
01:21The ruling DPP says the opposition is going to extreme lengths
01:24to get Lai face-to-face with lawmakers.
01:27It says the impeachment procedure is just an excuse
01:30for the opposition to force the president into the legislature for questioning.
01:35The effort to impeach Lai began after Premier Zhu Rongtai refused
01:49to countersign an opposition-backed local government funding bill
01:53preventing it from taking effect.
01:55The opposition also filed a proposal to impeach Zhu on Tuesday.
01:59Despite the hostility, there may be signs the ruling party is extending an olive branch.
02:04The cabinet has put forward two nominees to sit on Taiwan's Central Election Commission,
02:09one recommended by the KMT and the other by the smaller Taiwan People's Party.
02:14The move could provide a glimmer of hope for some calm after weeks of bitter feuding.
02:18Justin Wu and Leslie Liao for Taiwan Plus.
