Evening star., 1955-01-23
S62.4 Billion Set
AS IS Need; !; Plan
Envisions Deficit

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President Eisenhower unveiled his
first Tong -taul" budget last week
the sort Of budget that Is supposed
to carry the country, through per-
yllaps so years Of cold war.
It was q deficit budget, which was.
not necessarily forecast Of con-
tinuing deficits. although it did point
UP the extreme difficulty Of making
ends meet In the cold war.
It was q big budget. with two
thirds Of the spending earmarked TO
buy protection for the Nation.
But It was an optimistic budget,
assuming the Nation could carry the
huge load and still prosper.
Bosie Assumptions
The budget was built around three
basic assumptions:
Q Tensions between the Commu-
mist and free worlds will continue in
the coming fiscal year, but no shoot
ing wars will involve the United
States tthe budget message was
written before fighting broke out In
the Tachen Islands and In Costa
Rica).
. The Nation win prosper In the
coming fiscal year, national income
rising modestly Though the Presi-
dents annual economic report.
which also went to Congress last
week. was not rash enough to pre-
dict specifically the amount Of rise).
o Congress will extend taxes ut
present levels for another fiscal
year.
Policy Decisions
These basic assumptions were
combined with two major policy
decisions:
. Defense Policy. 1--WE should plan
and finance our national security
program on a long-term basis that
would maintain essential military
strength over an indefinite period
of time without impairing the basic
soundness Of the United States
economy"
o Domestic Policy. "A liberal at
titude toward the welfare of people
and a conservative approach to the
use of their money have shaped
this budget"
Shake the basic ingredients to-
gether, mix with 1924 pages Of
figures and explanations and you
produce dish that staggers the
imagination.
A fast man counting dollar bills
"a hours a day, .365 days year,
would count q billion dollars in
about 13 years. It would take him
almost eight centuries to count the
money proposed to be spent by the
new Eisenhower budget.
Budget-in-d Nutshell
Governmental income In q Ma
ton as rich-and as heavily taxed
as America is measured in astro-
nomical figures. But when income
and outgo are compared, the differ
ence, in the new fiscal year, win
be printed in red ink. Here is the
fiscal 1856 budget In a nutshell
(the new fiscal year will start at
1901 am. July and will end at
midnight. June 80, 1850:
Net spending ------------ $6Z.4 billion
Total receipts ---- ------ 600 billion
Deficit ---------------$ S "a billion
The estimate of q $2.4 billion ad-
dition to the national debt was
disappointment to the administra-
tion. but 1t was better than the esti-
mated deficit for the current 1855
fiscal year, $4.5 billion; better than
the 1854 figure. $3.1 billion, and
much better than the 1853 deficit.
$94 billion.
It might be pointed out that al
though the budget often was re-
ferred to as 1924 billion budget,
1t also was $586 billion budget
tthe total of new money TO be ap-
propriated by Congress) and $63.2
billion budget tthe total cash which
will be paid out by Uncle Sam.
Since. some money Is carried over
unspent from. year to year the
spending and appropriation figures
never match. And since several trust
fund transactions are not properly
figured into an overall budget. the