New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-19
A National Budget Needed.

A National Budget Needed.
The Democratic House caucus did
prudent thing last winter when it APP
pointed a committee Of members-elect OF
the new Congress to formulate Federal
budget plan. Necessity OVERRIDE consist
ency 1t was the Democratic majority in
the House in the last two years OF the
Taft administration that practically NULL
fed Mr.. Taft's praiseworthy efforts to
establish a real budget system. Coming
into power, the Democratic leaders In the
House wanted TO have free hand IN deal
ing with expenditures, and they succeeded
in fastening a rider on the legislative,
executive and judicial appropriation bill
approved August %, 1912, which repealed
previous legislation requiring effective CO.
operation on the Presidents part IN regu-
lating national expenditure.
II was all right for Democratic House
70 deny the administration any real re-
Isponsiblity for controlling appropriations
while there was Republican in the White
House. The blame for extravaganza could
he passed along to the party in power,
which actually spent the money. But when
a Democratic President came in the stu
alton changed. Responsibility for extrava-
gance could no longer be divided. AL
though Mr. John j. Fitzgerald, the con-
scientious chairman of the House Appro-
nriations Committee, tore his hair and
passionately excoriated his spendthrift
associates. the appropriations of the SD
Congress exceeded those of the 61st-the
last Republican Congress-by $177OOO,-
600. Even disregarding new Rational de-
fence demands absolutely legitimate in
themselves), the 64th Congress would In
evitably have continued to boost the level
of national outlay. 1t could not be other
wise under a system which allows every
"pork barrel" group to play its own hand
and provides no central authority with
power to check vicious raids on the
Treasury.
Two plans are now proposed to hold the
raiders back. The one involves the crea-
ton of a new House budget committee,
with supervision over all expenditure, and
the other involves vesting complete super
visory power in the present Appropria-
tons Committee. To the public it cannot
matter much which committee is pre-
ferred. so long as absolute control is con-
coded to it,
But Capitalization in Congress must
also be accompanied by clearer RESPONSE
bility on the part of the Executive. Under
the Taft budget law the President was
required to make expenditure and income
balance when the annual estimates were
sent to Congress. If he asked for larger
appropriations he had to indicate new
sources of revenue. The Wilson admins
tration submitted estimates to the last
Congress calling for even more money
than the easy spenders at the Capitol
were willing to grant. But 1t ran away
from the unpleasant problem of raising
new revenue with which to meet increases
in expenditure. The result was big def
lett in the Treasury.
III WOulQ De WISE W TetldCI buC l. all
budget scheme and put on the Executive
the duty of squaring income with outlay
in the estimates for any fiscal year. Then
the country would know in advance what
TO expect of Congress, and those who
wanted to spend more or less than the
Treasury thought it could afford to spend
would have to make fight on the facts
and make that fight in the open. Now,
there are no standards Of judgment and
no weight of authority which can fix
standards.
This Congress is going to spend great
deal more money than any other Congress
has spent-more than two or three Con-
crosses together would have dreamed of
spending twenty years ago. 1t is all the
more important, therefore, TO have some
brake put on reckless individual and group
action-to create a powerful central body
which will assume entire responsibility
for combating old-fashioned mismanage-
ment and waste.