Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1920-06-03
A REPUBLICAN PLAN TO
SAVE THE PEOPLES MONEY


EYES," replied Uncle Ted, RE
preventative James F. Byrnes of
South Carolina, made a speech in the
House Of Representatives the other
day in which among other thing he
said that in my stories to kiddies
always attack the President of the
United States, making false state
ments as to his official acts. Mr.
Byrnes said have been making false
statements about Mr.. Wilson's of
fetal acts because Mr. Byrnes doesn't
like to hear the truth about the De-
mocratic party and its present head,
Mr.. Wilson. When the truth isn't
pleasant it hurts.
so much for Mr.. Byrnes. Tonight
! am going to tell you little about
plan of the Republican in Congress
which, if made into law, will cut
out great waste in the peoples mon
ey. This plan is known as govern
ment budget. will try to tell you
about it in as simple words as pos
sible.
First of all, at the present time,
each government department, like the
Navy, War, and Agricultural Depart
ments, sends to Congress each year
statement of how much money it
wants Congress to let it have for the
next twelve months Under this plan
each department asks for money
without knowing anything about what
any other department may ask for or
the effect of such request, if granted,
might have on the Treasury. The
idea however, would look first of all
to the condition Of the Treasury, the
estimated receipt, and what would
be not only fair for each department
but what would be practical. In
general way a budget is a detail es-
innate of the money in the Urea
sury, and the expenses for the next
twelve months, to be presented to
Congress for it's consideration"
HAS Congress decided on bill to
make budget plan" asked Jack.
NO." answered Uncle Ted, Zone
bin has passed the House Of Re-
representatives. and another one has
passed the Senate. At the present
members from both the House and the
Senate are fixing up the little matters
in the bills which do not agree so
that one bill can be made which will
take care of the whole matter
Congress is almost unanimous, that
is nearly all the Members are for
this Republican plan of saving money
but certain members do not agree as
to the exact way in which to present
the plan or the way in which to put
it in working order. They all agree
upon one thing, that is, that the Pre-
sident must be responsible for the es-
innate of the money to be expended
in the various departments and SUBJ
nit it to Congress. The judgement
of the majority of the Senate is that
the Secretary of the Treasury should
be made Presidents chief responsible
agent in looking after the prepar-
alton of the estimate each for the
various government departments.
This was the way it was done in the
days when Alexander Hamilton was
Secretary of the Treasury.
"Now / will tell you in general way
just exactly how budget law would
work by the proposed plan. The Pre-
sident would call conference with
his Cabinet, which you know is COM
posed of heads of the departments of
of heads of the departments of the
government, and they would decide
on the amount of money needed to
carry on the business of the govern
ment for the next twelve months.
The Secretary of the Treasury would
submit his estimate of the amount OF
money which would be coming in to
the Treasury for the same length of
time from taxes and various forms of
ItFcHuc. lie lColQClb WOUAo idNS
to decide whether the programs out
lined by the various department heads
would mean reducing the taxes, keep
ing them at the same amount, or whe-
Their it would mean that the taxes
would have to be increased. All of
this would be merely the beginning of
the plan or what would be called
preliminary estimate. A Commiss-
ioner of the Budget would be named,
and he in person working with the
financial secretary of the various
departments, as provided in the Bud
get Bill, would take these estimates
and decide if they were correct in
order to carry on the work of the de-
partment for the next twelve months.
"The biggest thing that would be
, accomplished under the Budget Sys-
tenn would be the stopping of the pre-