Evening star., 1939-08-10

In the last session of Congress were
the folks who mapped out the big
lending spending" program. They
put all their chips on one number
of the wheel of fortune and lost
Had they separated the lending
spending bill into series of spe-
cific measures, appropriating $l23,-
100000 here and $47,000,000 there,
with few S7,O00,000 and $16,0OO,OOO
pieces of legislation thrown in, the
whole program might have been
adopted.
But Congress was a bit wary
about $3,600,000, 900 lump sum, or
rather, one might say, bit too
sensitive, especially after it had be-
come apparent for several weeks
that the total of appropriations or
commitments had gone beyond $13,-
000000,000
1t is odd that up to few weeks
ago, there was little mention in the
press or on the floor of Congress of
the big total. 1t seemed as if no
body was especially interested in the
simple arithmetic of adding all the
appropriations together. That's the
reason why the "lending-spending"
bill would have probably Jared much
better if it had been split into
dozen or more pieces.
Measure Offered Too Late.
Then, too, the lobby for specific
items always gets much stronger
support than for single bill. The
old way Of political gambling was
to assume that if you put all the
pork barrel items in one bill, the
various groups would be log-rolling
each other to get votes and hence
the whole measure would pass.
This is in truth a customary legis-
lative process and usually works
successfully, but the administration
put in its lendingspepding measure
too late in the session to line up
the special groups which stood to
benefit by the legislation. Had the
benefciaries realized the implica-
tions of the lending spending" bill,
or, to put it another way, had the
administration lieutenants organized
their powers of persuasion some
what earlier, there might have been
q different story to tell.
The administration also gambled
on another idea and lost. 1t was
that, from the point of view of
making the package more alluring
to Congress, longtime commit
ments would be found attractive.
1t worked just the other way. Thus
the actual amount of extra money
to be spent in the next fiscal year,
1910, has been conservatively esti-
mated at about S500000000, but be-
cause the appropriations or au-
thorlzations involved projects ex-
tending over several years, the critics
promptly called it a $500 900 900
spending lending" bill.
This habit of looking ahead at the
total expense rather than the spe-
cific annual items is often beneficial
in politics, as, for instance, in the
announcement that s9O5 100000 is
going to be saved" in social Sc
curity taxes. Actually, workers and
employers are not going to save a
nickel of pay roll taxes they are
already paying, but they are going
to be spared the burden of an addi-
tional 1885, 100000 in 1910, and since
this bit of forbearance rather than
tax relief is to continue for at least
three years, the sum has been null
tiplied into a headline about a
S905 600, 900 Saving"
Chance Better Early in 1898.
On the subject of gambling" with
lump sum appropriations, the ad-
ministration thus far has taken the
chance that the large appropria-
tions made would be appreciated by
the public as necessary in a national
emergency. But with the presence
of large numbers of unemployed, the
opposition party will insist that the
gamble on lump sums already spent
has not been successful. This is one
reason why lending" program to
cushion the fall over the "precipice.'
as the President refers to the sudden
change, is still essential from an
administration point of view to ef-
feet transition.
AS major policy, the program