President Lee Jae Myung said Wednesday it is unrealistic to pursue both economic growth and welfare expansion for now, stressing that priority should be placed on expanding the economic pie rather than welfare. The president wrote the message on his X account, uploading a media column that argued the government's budget bill for next year relatively lacked spending on "distribution." "Giving up growth while expanding welfare should never happen. Pursing the expansion of both growth and welfare is ideal but unrealistic," Lee wrote, adding, "Now is inevitably the time to focus on growth to expand the pie." The president still argued that the government has not cut back on welfare. "If we fail to recover sustained growth and head toward zero or negative growth, (economic) polarization would further worsen and could even lead to a decline in welfare," he said. The president added that the government is also paying attention to improving welfare policies and that more time would be needed for further measures. The previous day, the government proposed a record 820.9 trillion-won ($599 billion)