Evening star., 1947-02-24
Bottle of the BUDGET

Win tne House already on record
in favor of a $4,000, 100000 cut in
the Federal budget, the Senate
debate on this question should
command the earnest attention of
every citizen. For the decision to
be taken, if it is to be a meaningful
one, will profoundly affect the
future of all of us.
The Republicans have come into
power on Capitol Hill committed to
a 20 per cent tax reduction and
entrusted with what they regard
as mandate to effect very sub
Stantial cuts in Federal spending.
This is an alluring and also a
dangerous combination.
The essential facts are these:
President Truman believes that he
has submitted a rock bottom budget
OF $37.5 billion-that it cannot be
reduced without injury to the
national welfare. The House, ably
supported by Senator Byrd of Vir-
ginia, has pumped for a Sc billion
cut. But the thinking of the Senate,
as expressed by such members as
Senators Vandenberg and Tydings,
runs toward a reduction of around
$4.5 billion, and they have made 1t
clear that this is goal rather than
commitment. Since it may be
taken for granted that Congress
will settle on. some overall figure
for budget reduction-though it
should be remembered that 1t is
easier to promise economy than it
is to make the actual cuts-the
important question is where the
line shall be drawn.
Senator Byrd has argued per-
suasively for Sc billion reduction,
and his record in behalf of sound
fiscal policies is such as to command
respect. Yet the plans for a Sc
billion cut contemplate taking
2,225, 100000 out of the military
budget, and Senators Vandenberg
and Tydings argue earnestly and
convincingly that this can only be
done on the basis of a reckless
gamble with the Nations security.
No sensible person will want to
take that risk. If there is any lesson
which the experience of two wars
teaches it is that economy" at the.
expense of an adequate military
establishment is not economy at all,
but a singularly wasteful process.
World War II is over only in the.
sense that the shooting has stopped
The primary objective for which we
fought-our own national security
has not been attained. Far from
It,. Whether we want to face the
fact or not, the truth is that the
two great powers, our own Nation
and the Soviet Union, are maneu-
vering for position today through
out the world. And this process is
going on, not under idealistic con-
cepts but in conformity with the
realities of power. Force remains
the supreme arbiter, and while we
can look forward hopefully to a day
when this will no longer be the case,
it would be courting disaster to
neglect our power until that day is
at hand.
This does not mean, of course,
that no budget cut is feasible. But
it does most emphatically mean that
there should be no cut which would
impair our national strength, mill
tary or otherwise, and the people
should insist that their representa-
tives in Congress approach the
pruning process with this point
clearly in mind.
AS we draw ever closer to the time
when an enemy would be capable
of wiping out our major cities in
the course of an hour or so, we
cannot afford, in the words of Sem
ator Tydings, to Give in a dream
world, still watering the flowers of
sweet innocence in the peaceful
garden of yesterday"