OCR Text |
Show was the fact that it populated the government with amateurs. The administration's first Secretary of Defense made his initial economy move by hiring a fistful of $20,000 a year men to supervise super-vise cut-backs. Unfortunately for the taxpayer it took more than a few months for the Defense Secretary to realize that Washington Wash-ington wasn't Detroit. Under GOP Administration Russia Calls the Tune Being on the defensive is not only incomprehensible. It is costly. The United States and few will deny this is dancing to Russia's tune. When they call a waltz, we waltz. When they play a polka, we polka. This is a humiliating and infuriating situation. It is a state of affairs that can arise only under bankrupt leadership The fact is, we have been sung to sleep by the song of complacency. We might just as well admit it before it is too late. We might just as well face up to the realization that unless something is done and done very quickly, our house of twigs will be blown around us. If we want to preserve this great nation for our children, we must act now. The American people must be awakened to the danger. If nothing is done, the sleeping giant will continue to be pinned down by an army of administrative-Lilliputians mismanaging, bungling, competing with each other, wasting the vital potential we need to restore ourselves to our rightful position posi-tion in the world. When the present Administration came to power in 1952, it was dedicated to efficient administration, balanced budgets, and strong leadership. So they said. They announced stridently that they would throw the rascals out. Well they threw "the rascals" out. But to paraphrase Lincoln, they rather wish they had a few "rascals" back. Out of six fiscal years for which the Eisenhower Administration Adminis-tration has had complete responsibility, four have resulted in deficits and two in slight surpluses. The deficit for these six years amoulnts to 19 billion, 311 million. In the last completed fiscal year 1958-59 occurred the largest peacetime deficit in the history of the United States 12.5 billion dollars. In the proposed 1960-61 budget outlined by the President the interest costs alone will be over a billion dollars more than the total U. S. government expenditures at the height of the New Deal of fiscal year 1935-36. But this is what we would like to emphaszie. What is really important is not the budget itself but the value the government receives for the, money it spends: It is in this area that the present administration has had its greatest difficulty. One of the main problems faced by the incoming administration in 1953 ' |