Evening star., 1936-02-19
A Magnificent Obsession.

Balancing the Federal budget, accord
ing to Senator James F. Byrnes of South
Carolina, has become an "obsession."
Apparently it is an obsession only with
the critics of the administration and
with the anti-New Dealers. 1t is not
on record that the administration has
been afflicted with the budget balancing
mental disease. Instead, the expendi-
lures of the Federal Government con-
tinue to be expanded. The expansion
is not only for the new Government
agencies, having to do with relief ana
recovery. The expenditures for the vari-
GUS departments of the Government,
normally spoken of as the regular"
activities of Government, show increases
in many instances. The Senate, for ex-
ample, has just passed the independent
offices appropriation bill. 1t added, it is
true, about $2,180,0O0,000 for the pay
ment of the soldiers bonus and for the
payment of benefits to the farmers.
But the bill as passed by the Senate ex-
ceeds the current appropriations for reg
ular Government agencies by $74, ,517,757.
MIR. Byrnes speaks persuasively in
support of the spending program of the
President. These expenditures, he con-
tends, have been necessary to prevent
suffering. Some of them assuredly have.
But how many have been made in the
name of social experiments with the
American people? And how much of
the moneys appropriated for relief has
found its way into overhead" going
into the hands of persons who did not
need jobs to keep from starving? There
is evidence that large sums of money
have been expended recklessly.
In considerable detail, Senator Byrnes,
speaking over the radio, defended the
attitude of the Roosevelt administration
toward budget balancing. He insisted
that in abnormal times balancing the
budget was an unwise policy; that the
credit of the Government today is sound
and that the public debt can rise much
higher and still leave the Government
in a strong financial position. To Sus-
tain his contentious he pointed to the
higher per capita debts of France and
Great Britain. Because another nation
is suffering-and perhaps more than the
United States-is not entirely a satisfy
ing reason why the United States should
suffer from maladjusted finances.
The huge resources of this Nation and
the wealth of the American people still
make it possible for the Federal Gov
ernment to go more heavily into debt
than it has ever done in history. But
when the assets of the Nation have been
pledged up to the limit, what then? 1t
is all very well to talk of industry pick
ing up and revenues rolling in, but will
they? President Roosevelt has in his
budget message sought to make much
of the fact that deficits annually are
lessening. But they have been little,
less, and this next fiscal year the deficit
is going to be larger than in the present
fiscal year. And no one yet nows how
large the demands for relief funds will
be. The estimate for relief has so far
been withheld from the Congress by the
President, on the theory that he would
be better able to estimate the needs of
the country later in the year.
Budget balancing may be an obsession
with some people, but rapidly it is
becoming a magnificent obsession that
the administration might well adopt. 1t
would be rare exchange, for example,
for the obsession that by scarcity of crop
production wealth could be obtained.