Evening star., 1947-06-16
Slash
Is s'Wrong Kind
AT Wrong Time
Senate Is Expected
To Sustain Action;
House Vote Tomorrow
(Tert of Veto Message on Page A-5)
By Joseph A. Fox

President truman today vetoed
the Republican-sponsored tax
bill, declaring in message to the
House of Representatives that it
"offers dubious, ill-apportioned
and risky benefits at the expense
of a sound tax policy and is,
from the standpoint of Govern
ment finances, unsafe"
The Presidents action virtually
killed any possibility of cut in
income taxes this year.
Mr.. Truman declared in his mes
sage: "The right kind of tax re-
duction, at the right time, is an
objective to which I am deeply
committed. But I have reached
the conclusion that this bill rep
resents the wrong kind of tax re-
duction at the wrong time"
The House is expected to take .
vote on overriding the veto tomor-
row with possibilities of success, but
in the Senate it is conceded by
leaders of both parties that the veto
will be sustained, thereby throwing
the issue into 1948-an election
year.
Immediately after reading of the
veto message the House granted
unanimous consent for vote tomor-
row. Representative Mccormack of
Massachusetts,, assistant Democratic
House leader, declared there is a
good chance the House will not vote
to override the veto. A two-thirds
majority is needed to override.
Urges Tax System Revision.
The bill the President vetoed pro-
vided for reductions from 10.5 to
80 per cent in individual income
taxes beginning July /. The total
cut has been put at $4,000 ,000, 900.
In rejecting the bill, which topped
the Republican legislative schedule.
the President declared for an alter
native-a plan for "thorough-g going
revision of the entire tax system.
On the subject of reductions, the
Presidents message said:
THE time for tax reduction will
come when general inf1ationary
pressures have ceased and the struc-
ture of prices is on a more stable
basis than now prevails. How long
1t will take for this point to be
reached is impossible to predict.
Clearly, it has not been reached as
yet. Tax reduction now would add to
rather than correct, maladjustments
in the economic structure"
The President hit hard at the lines
on which the bill was drawn, declar-
ing the reduction proposed ARE
neither fair nor equitable.
Reduction Called Disproportionate.
He asserted the legislation re-
duces taxes in the high-incoms
brackets to grossly disproportion-
ate extent as compared to the re-
duction in the low-income brackets"
| Pointing to the scale of tax re-
ductions in the bill the President
said it fails to give relief where it
is needed most" Amplifying, he
said the average family with an in
come of $4,000 would get less than a
| $50 reduction while taxes on $4,000
would be reduced by nearly $1,000
and on an income of $500,000 by
nearly s6O,OOO
| He said that as far as take home
pay" is concerned the family with
a $2,500 income would get an in
crease of only IL per cent; the FAM
| lily with the income of $4,000 would
! get an 1876 per cent increase and
family with an income with $500,000
would get 623 per cent.
Leaders at White House.
Before the veto message went to
| the House, congressional leaders Of
both parties saw the President.
| Senate President Vandenberg said
| the conference was a followup of
that held earlier IN which the Presi-
dent asked that Congress expedite
action on some IS or 20 measures
before June 80 so they may be effec-
tive at the start of the new fiscal
year. Included in these are extern
sion of a number of war powers, m
cluding rent and export controls.
and authorization for the Maritime
Commission to operate shipping.
Senator Vandenberg added that
at least half of the measures are
well on the way to passage"
WAS anything said about the
tax and labor bills?" Senator Van-
Idenburg was asked.
mot a word, not a word" he
replied.
Others who saw the President
were Senator White of Maine and
Representative Halleck of Indiana,
majority leaders of Senate and
House; Speaker Martin and Rep
resentative Rayburn of Texas,
House minority leader.
Now that the tax bill issue is out
of the way, President Truman must
decide what to do on the labor curb
bill, and administration sources are
unwilling to hazard guess as to
what he will do on this.
White House Press Secretary