The Miami times., 1952-09-27
"A LETTER FROM
BILL L4ANTAFF
Dear Neighbor:

Dear Neighbor:
A South Florida gentleman
wrote me a few days ago about
my proposal for an automatic
budget as the answer to elimina-
tlon of deficit spending and the
road to lower taxation.
In his letter he wrote, 'tBill.
I've had lot of folks tell me
about your automatic budget
balancer which you discussed
down here during July and Aug
ust. All the folks say it's the most
realistic approach to, balancing
the budget but most of the folks
couldn't explain to me what type
gaoget IT was or exactly how it
worked. I'm sorry / missed your
explanation of this proposal, in
person and in the press, and won
dered if you might send me a
memo on it,
Well, in answering this neigh
Dor, your Congressman explained
It was not gadget. 1t isn't a
Rube Goldberg invention-type
with many wheels and a button
70 press that would start a ma
chine to manufacture a cure-all
end product. 1t is simply an
amendment that would set as
governor on the spending limit
OF our Federal Government.
AT the present time there are
about ten appropriation bills pre-
Sented to Congress each year.
There's an appropriation bill for
the Independent Agencies, the
Departments of Justice, Com
UerCe, Post Office and Defense.
for example. Congress considers
such appropriation bills separte-
ly over period of eight or ten
weeks. When this action is COM
pleted the total sum appropriated
may be more, or less, than the
total revenue. 1t is usually more
which results in an unbalanced
budget.
Let's say, for example and in
round figures, after Congress has
utilized every means to trim the
fat from each one of these appro-
priation bills they approve one
million dollars for each of the ten
departments. When they approve
the final appropriation bill they
find that the total amount .ap-
proved for all these departments
Is ten million dollars. Now, and
only now, is look taken at our
total revenues, the money that
will be taken in by the govern
ment. Say this revenue will be
nine million dollars. We find our
selves in position of spending
one million dollars more than we
will take in, This means deficit
spending or increased taxes to
makes the difference.
My proposal is to tack an
amendment on to each appropri-
alton bill, to the effect that if our
revenue is not enough to pay the
approved appropriations in full
then each department must take
an automatic cut in the PROPOSE
ton it bears to the sum total. In
other words, each of the ten de-
partmentS are approved for a
million dollars appropriation
making a total of ten million
dollars. Each department is one
tenth Of the approved total ap-
preparation. If revenue were only
nine million dollars, each depart
ment would be reduced one-tenth
so that they could only spend 900
thousand dollars, instead of one
million.
If each department were reduc-
ed to 900 thousand dollars. ten
times that would be nine million
dollars the same amount as
would be taken in in revenue.
This would mean a balanced bud
get. This would be the first step
toward getting each department
to cut the fat out of their own
budgets. Ut would be a definite
step toward elimination of deficit
spending and the possibility of
decreasing taxes.
Sincerely your,