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Show I The Senator Reports To The People Senator Arthur V. Warkini Circumstances at times make it very difficult for members of Congress -to appear consistent in their policies. For over a year now I have repeatedly announced my position with respect to government economy, with the need for balancing the budget, and with the need for obtaining over-ail efficiency in government govern-ment operations. Despite these stated views, 1 am now urging the Senate Appropriations Ap-propriations Committee to approve ap-prove several appropriations which I believe are vital to the welfare of the people of Utah. Immediately the charge is made that "Senator Watkins talks economy and wants to reduce re-duce the budget, but what does he do? He actually is asking for more government expenditures expendi-tures rather than supporting reductions." re-ductions." Position Consistent My position is not inconsistent. inconsist-ent. To me, economy, a balanced bal-anced budget and efficiency do not require the government to forget the welfare of its citizens. I am in favor of economy and I will support economy moves to the extent that they are consistent con-sistent with our national welfare. wel-fare. It appears that the United States is becoming so embroiled in the welfare of foreign nations that we are willing to exhaust our own resources in their behalf be-half rather than devote a little attention and money to the welfare wel-fare of our town taxpaying citizens. citi-zens. Only last Thursday I urged the Appropriations Committee to favorably consider an increase in-crease for Forest Service funds to be used for range reseeding. Such a program will increase our meat production; it will help to alleviate the present controversy contro-versy between livestock grow- : ers, sportsmen, the 'urban areas . and the Forest Service, all of . which are competing for the re-; re-; sources of the national forests. This is essential to our own welfare and indirectly is beneficial bene-ficial to our foreign allies, because' be-cause' as we strengthen ourselves, our-selves, we are able to increase our assistance overseas . In addition, 1 requested the committee to favorably consider an appropriation of at least $50,-000 $50,-000 for the Forest Service which will use the money to combat the spread of the poisonous poison-ous weed Halogeton. This will further improve our ranges and the livestock industry will more ; than repay the cost thru in- creased taxation. ! These requests are for funds to develop our national resources; resourc-es; to improve our living conditions condi-tions and living standards. They will add to our income and our strength as a nation. The cold war is a long war and we are going to need all the strength we can muster. j Support Reductions i On the other hand, I am going go-ing to support heavy reductions ' in many expenditures proposed by the President. Foreign spend- ,' ing can be cut severely. De-. fense expenditures are not un- touchable. Congress can reduce ! ' these so that military leaders ' ' will be forced to practice econ- omies without impairing our I defense in the least. The President Pres-ident can use the ax in his own executive agencies, but Congress Con-gress also will assist him by cutting requests. It appears reasonably certain at this writing that Congress will reduce by billions. of dollars, dol-lars, the budget Mr. Truman asked for. In doing this, however, how-ever, I do not believe we should lose sight of our own national welfare. I |