Evening star., 1963-01-14
KENNEDY
More FIexibiIity
In Defense Asked


bargain basement" way of
achieving adequate defense, he
said the country must spend
more to make its non-nuclear
forces more powerful and flex-
ible as well as spend more than
SIS billion on nuclear weapons
systems alone.
Referring to the Cuban crisis
experience again, he said
threats of massive retaliation
may not deter piecemeal ag-
gression-and a line Of Destroy
ers in a quarantine, or a di-
vision of well-equipped men on
a border, may be more useful
to our real security than the
multiplication of e.som e
weapons beyond all rational
need"
Emphasizing the need for
reducing taxes, the President
described a booming American
economy as part Of the very
foundation for freedoms survi-
val and success"
Sees Base BrOadened
He said the reforms he will
propose to offset some $3.5 bill
lion of the total revenue loss
will broaden the tax base, end
unfair or unnecessary prefer
ences, remove or tighten cer-
tain hardships without speci-
flying the changes he has in
mind. Mr.. Kennedy intends to
spell out the tax program in a
later special message.
To help ease the impact of
the proposed cuts on the budg-
ct, he said Government receipts
should be increased by SIS bill
lion a year at the outset by
merely shifting the tax pay
ments of large corporations to
a current time schedule.
Sees Buying Increased
The present obsolete tax sys-
tem," he said, "exertS too heavy
a drag on private purchasing
power, profits and employment.
Designed to check initiation in
earlier years, it now checks
growth instead"
He said the net reduction in
tax liabilities Of $40 billion he
urged will increase purchasing
power of American families and
businesses in every tax bracket,
with the greatest increase go
ing to low income consumers.
He said it would help provide
the two million new jobs needed
every year.
To critics who insist that
taxes should not be cut unless
matched by reductions in Gov
ernment spending, the Presi-
dent said: There are no doubt
some who would prefer to put
off a tax cut in the hope that
ultimately an end to the cold
war would make possible an
equivalent cut in expenditures
but that end is not in view
and to wait for it would be
costly and self defeating"
|, In assessing the world situa-
ton. the President took special
note Of Increased strains and
tensions within the Communist
bloc" Advising that hope must
be tempered with caution" he
said the dispute between the
Union and Communist
China is "over means. not
ends"
He emphasized, however, that
it is clear that the forces of di-
versity are at work inside the
Communist camp. The yearn-
ing Of all men to be free" and
the gross inefficiency" of
Communist economies height
ems the disarray Of the Com
empire, he added.
Mr.. Kennedy promised to
continue this year efforts to
make the foreign aid program
a more efficient instrument of
American policy. He said 1t
makes little sense to spend $50
billion a year to prevent the
military advance Of COM
munism and then to begrudge
spending less than one-tenth
of that amount to help other
nations "cure the social chaos
in which communism always
has thrived."
He also said he wanted a
lowering of trade curbs; an
expanded Peace Corps; "an
increasingly intimate NATO
alliance" with its own nuclear
force and stronger conventional
arms; and a vigorous Alliance
q. 4.