Evening star., 1941-09-03
La Toilette Assai|s
Senate Tax Bill as
'|ndefensibIe'
Declares 1t Socks
The Poor; Demands
Excess Profits Levy

Excess Profits Levy
Continued From First Psge.)
criminatory. The burden is not
fairly spread.
THE reduction in personal income
tax brackets to an extreme degree
Is highly illusory as a means to
spread the burden 1t goes down
into incomes which cannot by any
stretch Of the imagination be further
reduced. Yet, it takes seven times
as much out OF the higher brackets
as it does out of the lowest brackets,
and really becomes q device to
pile still more burdens upon that
minority Of Americans who already
pay most of the Nations bills"
Senator Vandenberg said there is
no practical way for him to re-
vive on the Senate floor his un-
successful motion in committee to
substitute a general manufacturers
sales tax for many of the "discrim-
inatory taxes in the bill His pro-
posal, he said, is too complicated
to be worked out during debate. He
predicted. however. that some such
tax will be inevitable within year.
Charging the administration with
having gone through an "eight-year
non-defense spending spree without
parallel in the history of the world"
the Michigan Senator said, Now
the chickens are coming home to
roost.'" The Government, he said,
will have to declare war on non-
essential spending at home before
it declares war on any enemy 5000
miles away.
Assailed by Clark.
Senator Clark, Democrat, of Mis-
souri,, a member of the finance
group, and other members also ex-
pressed disfavor, Senator Clark CALL
ing the measure "a hodge-podge
hit-or-miss piece of legislation"
Asserting that the bill makes IAN
intolerable tax structure infinitely
worse" Senator La Toilette called
on the Senate to reject it and un-
dertake thorough revision of the tax
structure on the principle of ability
to pay"
The most serious defect in the bill
as it stands, he said, is its failure
to tax excess profits adequately and
fairly.
For a number of years Senator La
Toilette has advocated broadening
Of the income tax base-which
means lower exemptions-but he left
no doubt today that he is against
doing it to the extent now proposed
and along with direct excise and
sales levies.
With an additional lease-lend
appropriation for aid to other coun-
tries about to be submitted to Con-
gress, which will no doubt equal if
not exceed the additional revenues
to be raised by the pending bill, it is
idle to lull ourselves into the false
dream that the present bill Is within
gunshot of being adequate to meet
the fiscal crisis which confronts the
Trcs-uc-y now and in the foreseeable
future" the Progressive declared.
Report Explains Changes.
The majority report of Senator
George was factual explanation Of
changes in the House bill, rather
than an argument in defense Of the
revision.
A third report was filed by Sem
ator Connally. Democrat. Of Texas,
who is leading the fight of the eight
community property States against
a committee amendment designed to
put those States On a level with all
others in the handling Of separate
returns by husbands and wives.
Senator La Toilette called the bill
"a hodge-pooge of inconsistencies,
with no underlying principle of tax
alton whatsoever, except that, like
many previous tay bills, it 'plucks
the goose that squawks the least
Unfortunately, the small individual
taxpayer who will dig deep into his
pockets to pay these bills has not
made himself heard"
Continuing, he said:
Although the committee tax bill
Is the largest in our history, it is
no answer to the present urgent
fiscal situation. The 3.6 billions of
dollars are hopelessly inadequate in
the face of a 50-or-6 -billion-dollar
defense program, a 49-billion-dollar
national debt and a probable deficit
this fiscal year, over and above this
tax bill, of more than 10 billion dol
lars.
Won't Solve Problems.
THE proposed patchwork on the
present faulty tax structure and the
hiking of present rates are not
solution to the Government fiscal
problems. 1t is not commonly ap-
preciated that defense spending has
created an extraordinary situation
which must be met by extraordinary
taxation, not only as to degree of
taxation, but also as to kind Of tax
alton. No doubt taxes must be
heavier, but, more than that, they
must be revised so as to be more
equitable and to conform to the