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Show j flo Comment , By James W. Douthat WASHINGTON An all-important break in the bat-tic bat-tic for tax reform came in the announcement that the I louse Ways and Means Committee definitely would hold hearings on the need for tax revision. Thus advocates of tax cuts now are assured of an opportunity to urge Congress during formal hearings to enact legislation substantially reducing personal and corporation cor-poration income tax rates. This opportunity will come next Jan. 7 at the orvninp of the 1953 session of, Congress- The Ways and Means hearings were order by Chairman Chair-man Cooper following a meeting meet-ing attended by the 15 Democrats Demo-crats on the committee along with Speaker Rayburn. Bipartisan legislation now is pending in Congress and undoubtedly un-doubtedly will play a prominent role In the hearings to lowe.' personal and corporation income tax rates to a maximum of 42 by a series of annual reductions during the next five years. Indcntical bills to accomplish this purpose were Introduced on Mar. 28 by Rep. Sadlak and on Aug. 5 by Rep. Herlong. Both are members of the Ways and Means Committee. Approximately 1,500 bills are pending before the committee, the great majority of which are tax measures. This assures a wide variety of tax testimony. Committee members say privately pri-vately that the hearings will be vrlde open. It is expected that they will continue for at least two months. This will leave am- pie time for enactment of a tax-reduction tax-reduction bill before Congressional Congress-ional adjournment. Some committee members believe be-lieve that the 195s fiscal year (ending next June 30 budget surplus will be, at least, in the neighborhood of $3 billion rath-er rath-er than $1.8 billion officially forecast. I A $3 billion surplus if achieved ach-ieved generally is considered sufficient to justify a start toward to-ward tax reform next year. Chairman Cooper, however, carefully avoided any promise of a tax cut. What he promised was hearings at which interested parties would be permitted to express their views. Some Democratic committee members had urged the chairman chair-man to promise tax-reduction legislation. They are represented represent-ed as fearful that the party will lose political advantage if President Presi-dent Elsenhower rather than the Democrats is first to pro-mise pro-mise the voters that their taxes will be cut. Thus far, Mr. Eisenhower has taken the position that the budget bud-get surplus in sight is not adequate ade-quate to justify general tax reduction. re-duction. This fiscal situation, however, could change by the time Mr. Elsenhower submits his Budget Message to Congress next January. Broad-scale hearings are essential, essen-tial, however, before tax legislation legisla-tion Is enacted. The most expert opinion must be made available to the legislators, for it is imperative im-perative that legislation be pass, ed which best serves the public interest. Hasty and Inadequate hearings or no hearings at all would tend to promote the passage of ill-advised legislation which would retard, rather than stimulate, stimu-late, the nation's economic development. |