Evening star., 1932-03-25
The Budget Still Waits.

The Budget Still Waits.
The House has kicked overheard one
means of balancing the Governments S
budget-the manufacturers sales tax 1t
is necessary now to find some other
form of taxation to raise the necessary
revenue to balance the budget or to
abandon all idea of putting the Gov
ernment of the United States in a posi-
ton to meet its expenditures without
borrowing huge sums Of money. The
danger to the credit of the Govern
ment and to the stability of business
and all values in the country If the
Governments budget is not balanced
has been admitted by many members
of the House, which yesterday by a
vote of 223 to 153 threw out the manu-
facturers tax. Speaker John N, Garner,
Majority Leader Rainey and Acting
Chairman of the Ways and Means Com
mittee Crisp have testified to this
danger.
Mr.. Garner, in an interview after
the debacle in the House yesterday, as
serted that there are plenty of sources
of revenue left to tap. Well, it is up
to the House to tap them. If the
House is to go to a tax on gasoline, on
bank checks, on automobiles, on elec-
tricity and gas in domestic consump-
tion and to an increased postage rate,
it is time the people knew something
about it. And at the same time If
the House is to fail to enact legisla-
ton to balance the budget, the coun-
try is entitled to know it well in ad-
vance of the nomination of members of
that body who are to seek reelection
in November
Casting aside all thought of politics,
the Democratic leaders of the House are
demanding that the budget be balanced
Such a step is in the direction of
economic reconstruction, a most impor-
tant and an essential step. The de-
mand for the manufacturers sales tax
SO eloquently made by Mr.. Crisp and
Mr.. Rainey on the floor of the House
was based entirely on the need of bal
ancing the budget. The Ways and
Means Committee Of the House after
an exhaustive study of the situation
reached the conclusion that the manu-
facturers' tax, levied on all kinds of
industry, was not only the fairest man
ner Of raising the needed revenue, but
also the most effective. Democrats and
Republicans alike united finally to sup
port the manufacturers tax. 1t was
not a tax proposed by the Hoover
administration. 1t was only put for
ward after the Ways and Means Com
mittee had soberly considered the whole
field of possible taxation.
But the Democratic leadership of
the House has not been backed up by
the rank and file of the Democrats.
Representative ByrnS of Tennessee,
chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee and chairman, too, of the
Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee, took leading part in an
argument on the floor of the House
against balancing the Government
budget and was cheered by other DEM
ocratic members while he argued. Dis
cuSsing the manufacturers sales tax
yesterday in the House, Mr.. Byrns said:
why not impose a reasonable tax
upon wealth and upon business and
upon all those who are best able to
stand it and then issue certificates for
the balance until this Government gets
In better position to pay for its cur
rent operations?" And after this re-
mark as it is printed in the Congress
sional Record appears in parenthesis
the word applause"
Mr.. Byrns argued that Government
Issues of securities will be taken readily
by investors in this country. But it is
evident that the interest rates on these
Government issues have steadily in
creased until the rates are twice or
almost three times as high as they were
year ago. 1t is evident, too, that the
values of Government bonds have de-
creased in a manner almost unheard
of before in this country. And yet this
is a situation that the Democratic
chairman Of the important Committee
on Appropriations is willing to wave
aside, and apparently, many of his
colleagues feel the same way about it.
The deSertion of their chosen leaders
by the great ma jority of the Democrats
of the House in this crisis is not CAL
culated TO inspire confidence in the
wisdom or in the efficiency Of the
Democratic party at this crisis. While
no record vote was possible in the
House yesterday, it has been estimated
that more than forty of the Democrats
voted with Mr.. Crisp and Mr.. Rainey
in the vote on the manufacturers sales
tax. miserable showing If considered
from no other point of view than party
loyalty and solidarity.
Threats of Communism show that