Evening star., 1934-01-08
Debts and Deficits.

Republicans in Congress and out,
waiting for an issue, for a rift in the
Roosevelt popularity, are giving the
administrations budget the "once over. y
Rather tentatively, however, and await
ing the reaction Of the public to the
fact that in 1885 the public debit the
estimates of the President are correct
and if Congress goes ahead with the
appropriations recommended by the
aoministration-will reach almost S32,-
600, 600 900. Senator Arthur Vandenberg
| of Michigan, for example, has COM
| mended the President for his frank
statement of the financial condition of
the country, but has added that there
should be complete analysis of emer-
gency expenditures which have swollen
the public debt to proportions never
before existing in this country. The
Michigan Senator, still testing the water
of public opinion before plunging boldly
in, finds no fault with the vast spending
plan of the administration, provided it
brings actual recovery. In that he is
perfectly safe, of course
But these prodigal expenditures all
to be reflected ultimately in taxes upon
an already tax-burdened people, call fer
every last detail of illumination and
every possible check against exploita-
tion," the Senator adds. He wants to
know whether the expenditures were
justified in every particular and whether
the country really received the benefit,
and where.
OF sterner stuff is the criticism leveled
at the Roosevelt budget and the Roose-
Yelt deficit by Senator Patterson of Mis-
souri,, another Republican. Without
temporizing, Mr., Patterson has de-
scribed the Roosevelt course as the road
to ruin, saying: Let the American
people ponder over the actual results
and conditions rather than be misled
through pleasing platitudes end empty
promises. We cannot spend our way
out of the depression nor borrow our
selves out of debt" Nor can Senator
Patterson fird that a deficit of huge
proportions rolled up by expenditures
under a Democratic President is any
sweeter or easier to pay than deficit
accruing in a Republican administra-
ton.
President Roosevelt, Senator Patter-
son points out. in his economy message
to Congress last March expressed his
horror at finding that during the last
three years of the Hoover administra-
tion total deficit-total for all three
years-had reached the huge proper
tions of Saba, 900, 900. And yet in
the first year of the Roosevelt admin
istration the deficit rolled up will total
$7,309,0 ,068,211, and the public debt in
1885 will be swollen to $31 1874 ,OOO, 900.
Something, Mr.. Patterson contends,
seems to be lacking in the consistency
of the Presidents demand for "econ-
omy"
The public debt, If 1t reaches the
total now estimated by the President,
will equal almost one-tenth Of the
total estimated wealth Of the United
States as Of 1880, and will be about five
billion dollars short of the entire
wealth of the Empire State, New York,
in the estimates of the same year
The interest payments on this debt will
depend materially upon the rates of
interest. At four per cent they would
reach 1920, 100000 annually; at three
per cent, s96o,O0O,o 900; at two per cent,
S640, 100000. The interest charges are
tremendous burdens in themselves, and
they do not reduce the principal.
President Roosevelt himself has
warned that the country must get back
to a "pay-as-you-go" method of pro-
cedure by the third year of recovery"
He is confident that recovery will have
materialized by that time. If recovery
has been restored the country will be
happier, but the Republicans believe
that at the same time it will be restive
under the huge tax burden necessary
to carry and to reduce the public debt
Their resentment will run, they con-
tend, to the party which controlled
the Government when the debt was
incurred.