Show Bruc Bru karts charts washington digest home folks fed up on war talk I 1 want to know about tax problem considerable transition from interest in european affairs to domestic concerns on part of public noted treasury to borrow more alore money by WILLIAM BRUCKART national press washington D C washington observers here in washington have a little way of their own by which they are able to forecast the trend of public thought and interest it is a method that was developed solely from experience most of us who attempt to serve you outside of washington as eyes and ears have learned to watch the demand for speakers and subjects upon which public men are asked to talk it is not an infallible method but it is usually correct re ct the only fly in the ointment is is that we must learn to distinguish between the propaganda preachers and the legitimate desires of groups to have government questions explained to them it is to be noted here by way of review that three months ago the bulk of the speeches by men from washington had to do with war our chances of getting involved neutrality tra lity etc there were interspersed with these of course the usual truckloads truck loads of guff from secretary wallace and the other self appointed spokesmen for agriculture rinds and cracklings crac klings from secretary ickes and about the usual quantity of mou mourn things ings from the superior minds whose owners are greatly concerned in development of culture liberal thinking but it was about the war and related su subjects that most people wanted to know the scene is changing now in indeed a considerable transition already has taken place home folks are getting fed up at last and are desirous of knowing more about home problems and what the government intends to do about them it is a trend most pleasant to contemplate there simply can be no doubt about the fact that if the people of the united states forget about that war in europe and pay attention to their own business we will be able to stay out rather easily comes an awakening to the problem of taxation with this background then let me call attention to the number of persons who appear at long last to have awakened to the problem of taxation federal state county and c city ty obviously when there is an in interest terest in taxation there is a parallel interest in what government does with the money taken from its citizens this interest surely exists now to a greater extent than at any time within recent months more and more inquiries are being received more and more requests tor for discussion of the subject are reaching officials in washington and it if my information from outside sources be correct there is a similar interest being shown in the states and cities in this period of changing interest secretary announced that the united states treasury is prepared to borrow more money in the next two months according to the secretary the treasury will borrow an additional halt half a billion dollars it will refund something like a billion and a quarter also but that process is simply trading new bonds or notes for old ones that fall due the borrowing is new money in the sense that new bonds will be sold and the proceeds used by the treasury to meet expenses and naturally the national debt will be increased by that amount it is well to remember that as of november 1 the public debt was and that there are several other billions of bonds issued by such agencies as the reconstruction finance corporation po ration the home owners loan corporation and debts guaranteed by agencies like the federal housing administration for which the treasury is morally it if not actually responsible it is not curious therefore mat folks are asking each other where is this spending going to stop or how are we going to tb pay off that debt or what are our taxes going to be in the future tax receipts for nation astounding in magnitude I 1 am indebted to the federation of tax administration for some totals of tax receipts tor for the nation that are not only astounding in their magnitude but startling in the im implications they give the statistics disclose that the american people paid in taxes tanes in 1938 this money was collected by the federal state county and city governments and some odds and ends of special taxing districts which levied taxes for especial purposes of this amount the federal government collected state governments collected and local governments took a toll of one of the new taxes the tax on payrolls to maintain pensions and unemployment yielded in excess of or almost one tenth of all of the money taken by the tax collector its total seems to give substance to the complaint that this tax is a tremendous burden on any one who hires workers the payroll tax according to the administrators tra tors analysis was the third largest of single items of taxation only the property tax and the income tax brought in more money for the spenders of federal state or local governments property taxes levies on everything you own your house or farm or horses or automobile paid a total tribute of it if you are good at figures you will find that sum to be 32 per cent almost one third of all of the taxes paid by the united states last year income taxes ranked second in the sums produced for governmental use the income taxes laid b by y federal state and city governments supplied and that is 22 per cent of the revenue another group includes the concealed levies but there is another group of taxes a long list of items that include most of the sneak thief taxes unseen and concealed levies that really is bearing down these genral general e and special sales taxes federal stamp levies excise and license taxes were responsible tor for slightly fitly more than one fourth of adloney all money paid into treasuries of government this money came from tobacco liquor gasoline sales taxes of various kinds which you saw only by close examination or could not discover at all licenses etc the gasoline tax was the largest revenue producer federal state and local governments obtained because most of us burned up gasoline through use of the motor cars liquor revenue amounted to it is said by some authorities that this type of tax has about reached its peak to increase it more will mean that bootleggers can begin to operate once more because added taxes will send the price of liquor to a point where bootlegging becomes profitable such is not the case with the other taxes in the group you pay them and like it all in all the administrators analysis shows ten general groupings of taxes throughout the nation and it is interesting to note that each of these ten major items is used by more than one level of government ern ment that is to say the federal and state governments will be found using income taxes states and counties and cities willbe will be found using some types of sales sale s taxes along with a similar tax by the national government and some of the other taxes may be found employed as revenue producers by two or all three of the levels of government which brings us to a recent speech made by john W hanes undersecretary under secretary of the treasury mr hanes arrived at a conclusion that only a general increase in business would provide enough income for all 0 of f the tax eaters he suggested that there were few if any untapped sources of income insofar as the federal government is concerned and other students have talked frankly about the similarity of tax problems among the federal state and local governments cut in in personal exemptions exemption would add only 60 millions the school of thought that has advocated broadening the base of income taxes by the federal government by reducing the personal exemptions empt ions from 2500 for married couples and 1000 for single persons was shown by mr hanes to be somewhat ignorant of facts he pa pointed anted out that an exemption of 2000 tor for married couples and for single persons instead of athe the present limits would add afify only a year to the national revenue that is not a good drop in the bucket it if all of the present besent income tax amendments that have been mentioned were now in force the total taxes they would yield would be only about according to mr hanes hence mr hanes hanes said said with reference to the federal government you the american public have the final control demands from back home upon the congress for more and more federal expenditures for less and less needed projects are at least a partial source of difficulties we have developed our country a appetite with a pocketbook I 1 think our problem Is not so much when we balance our budget as where in other words how much federal expenditure are you going to demand and how do you propose that the government raise the funds I 1 am hoping that the apparent trend toward a public consciousness of th the e governments financial condition whether that government be national or state or local will expand and begin to roll like in mountain ota in flood waters |