US Presidency
1932

The first necessity of the Nation, the wealth and income of whose citizens has been reduced, is to reduce the expenditures on government-national, State, and local. It is in the relief of taxes from the backs of men through which we liberate their powers. It is through lower expenditures that we get lower taxes. This must be done. A considerable reduction in Federal expenditures has been attained. If we except those extraordinary expenditures imposed upon us by the depression, it will be found that the Federal Government is operating some $ 200 million less annually today than 4 years ago. The Congress rejected recommendations from the administration which would have saved an additional $ 150 million this fiscal year. The opposition leadership insisted, as the price of vital reconstruction legislation and over the protest of our leaders, upon adding $ 300 million of costs to the taxpayer through public works inadvisable at this time. I shall repeat these proposals for economy.