Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-06-20
No Security From Taxes.

The Presidents share the wealth" or
"soak the rich" program of taxation
seems to have caught Congress off guard.
The leaders, as the end of hard ses-
sion was coming in sight, were tentatively
making forecasts once more of the date
of adjournment. The hardest parts OF
the must" program were behind them.
And then, without warning and appar-
emily without consultation with the legis-
lative generals at the Capitol, the mes
sage lands among them with the sharp
report of bursting bombShell, setting
up reverberations that will continue to
echo for long time to come.
Yet there is a certain timelineSs about
it. The Senate placed the finishing
touches on the social security legislation
yesterday afternoon. That is the bill
which has been hailed as marking the
end of the poorhouse and alternating
many of the ills associated with unem-
ployment. 1t is also bill which levies
heavy taxation; taxation probably more
than any tax measure ever enacted by
Congress. In unemployment taxes and
In income taxes to defray the expenses
of old-age pensions the bill is estimated
to produce about 1,877, 800 900 annually
by 1943-leSS than ten years hence. And
the weight of that added tax burden
may be measured in part by comparison
with the existing Federal tax burden,
which in the fiscal year 1884 amounted
to s2,672, 23e, 1914, including the A. A. A.
processing taxes. In other words, less
than ten years hence the total present
existing Federal tax burden will have
been increased by more than one-half
through the excise taxes on pay rolls
and through the income tax on employees
to pay the expenses and create the re-
serves for unemployment insurance and
old-age pensions alone.
This new, added tax burden-not in
sluding additions which will come through
the levying of local taxes to meet State
requirements not contemplate the
taxes necessary to finance other new
governmental functions undertaken by
the New Deal, or to begin the liquidation
of the huge public debt which has been
and is still being assumed for New Deal
expenditures.
The Presidents message on the taxa
ton of higher incomes, the increased
taxation of corporate earnings, the new
taxation of inheritances and gifts, not
to mention the possibility of removing
tax-exemption from Federal and State
securities through future constitutional
amendment, furnishes in part an an
swer to the question Of the source OF
these additional revenues that must be
found when pay day rolls around. And,
Judging from Senator Huey Longs fer
vent amen" on reading the message, it
represents to him a highly satisfactory
method of sharing the wealth"
For, while the President lays stress
in his message on "the need to simplify
and clarity our revenue laws" that is
not, of course the chief objective which
the message as whole outlines. That
objective, first, is to obtain more revenue
to meet the accumulated needs for the
future, represented in borrowing during
the past There is the additional objec-
tive, which has its political implications,
of moving toward the conf1scation Of
great fortunes. Whether Congress, weary
with its past labors and FESTIVE under
the White House spur, will attempt en-
actment of the new tax program at this
session Is question that leaders will
settle in the next few days. The Presi-
dents message is not clear in that re-
spect. But if the new tax program was
not intended to take its place on the
legislative must" list, what was the rea-
son for sending it up nowP