Evening star., 1936-03-17
BROADER TAX BASE
HELD INEVITABLE
Present Program Cannot
Balance Budget, OBJ
server Declares.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

The biggest and most important
piece of news out of Washington these
days is the revelation that the Roose-
welt administration really cannot bal
ance the budget by present methods of
taxation.
For nearly two weeks the Ways and
Means Committee has been struggling
with the tax plan offered it by Presi-
dent Roosevelt in order to raise about
&620,000.000 a year. But it develops
now that no such amount can be raised
by the proposed tax on undivided sur
spluses earned by corporations in the
future AS for raising the $4,000, ,000,-
1000 year needed to balance the bud
get, the method and manner of achiev-
ing that objective is still undiscovered.
This being a political year, Congress
Is reluctant to broaden the tax base
or adopt a sales tax or any of the
other revenue devices that will bring
down on Senators and Representatives
the political wrath of the consuming
spublic. Between 5000, 900 and 4,00O,-
900 persons handed in income tax re-
turns this week. and the remainder OF
the gainfully employed persons. esti-
mated to be about 100000 900 or there
abouts, probably believed that the Fed
eral tax problem was not in any way
bearing down on them.
Burden Must Be Assumed.
Yet the day is not far distant when
the weight of Federal taxes will have
to be felt by all classes of people if
the Government is to stop the borrow
ing process that is running up the
national debt so rapidly. The admin
istration hopes to avoid this step till
alter the November elections in the
hope that no political repercussions
will arise in the coming campaign.
That the taxation of all incomes down
to $3.50 or thereaboutS directly, and
ssthe taxation Of all persons indirectly,
!, may be looked for in the next three
years no longer can be doubted. In
truth. the end of the soak-the-rich
program is in sight. The point has
been reached where the administra-
ton has the alternative of killing the
goose that lays the golden egg-that
as, sitting industry and forcing more
Unemployment and an increase of re-
lief expenses-or soaking the poor as
well as the rich with new taxes, or
"cutting expenses drastically.
= The spectacle Of Congress trying
Ito find a way to raise S620000. 900
when the sums actually to be raised
to achieve a balanced budget are
about five times that amount is not
q happy one. Friends Of the admins
~tration conceal it or camouf1age 1t
whilst critics are regarded as public
enemies if they even hint at the forth
~coming dangers to national credit in
Sthe event that some comprehensive
and productipe taXraising scheme is
mot soon adopted.
It's an ill wind that blows no good
however. for if the tax money cannot
gbe raised without impairing business
and industry and thus increasing un-
2employment. then the national de-
gmand for economizing on Federal ex-
.!penses will soon rise up and cause
many a member of Congress to lose
his seat.
: The problem is a serious one, no
+.fnatter who is elected President. Now
ythat the debt has been incurred, the
question Of how to pay it back should
.sbe nonpolitical. Yet the question of
whether all the Federal expenses are
actually necessary is bound to become
political. The campaign may well
center on the theme-waste and
sext-avagance.
= What has been borrowed to date.
-$3l, 500, 900 900, is not excessive in it
self. America can stand such a pub
.lic debt. 1t is not the size of the pub
slic debt, on the other hand, but the
srate at which it is piled up that gives
cause for concern to economists and
fiscal experts of that school of thought
which believes that money borrowed
from the people ought not to be re-
pudiated by imitation or by any other
means, but should really be paid back
TO the lenders.
& AS matters stand today, the citizen
@cannot reach the spenders. Budget
responsibility is not assumed by either
the Republicans or the Democrats in
Congress. Court action against waste
s,of public funds is virtually impossible
because decisions thus far have pre-
vented an aggrieved citizen from get
ting a case before the judicial branch
of the Government.
Check on Money Waste.
, Some day an ingenious student OF
The law will find way to enjoin waste
of public money or else the public will
find a way to amend the Federal Con-
sstitution to provide such check as is
to be found in the State constitutions.
- Today Congress has virtually unlim-
.5ted power to spend and the Ameri-
can people have the unlimited privi-
;1ege of paying whatever taxes are i'm
posed upon them. They have no di-
rect voice in expenditure, and the
sshibboieth taxation without repre-
ssentation is tyranny" has no concrete
slneaning nowadays, especially as the
Federal budget becomes intertwined
in hundred and one other issues,
making party responsibility for ex-
spenditure hard to define in terms of
specific candidates. at the polls.
n (Copyright 1861