OCR Text |
Show Should Practice What They Preach By Congressman Lawrence Burton The 1965 Yearbook of Agriculture, issued this fall, considers a broad range of subject matter, including housing, hous-ing, health care, finance, landscaping and laundering. In a chapter dealing with the family budget this federal fed-eral publication advises the taxpayers regarding the importance im-portance of budgeting the family funds. It considers the situation in which the family spends more than its income allows. This is the advice offered in such a situation: "If you have planned for more than your income will cover, you will need to take a look at all parts of your plan. You will need to decide which of your wants are less important, important, very important. Look at the day-today expenses. Try to trim them." If this is good advice, one wonders why the federal government doesn't practice what it preaches. In spite of what the government tells the citizens about handling his own family budget, it doesn't follow its own advice. Since 1960 the federal debt his increased by some $32 billion, and today stands at about $318 billion. bil-lion. It takes approximately 11 cents of every dollar in taxes paid just to meet the yearly interest costs. The extra burden of the war in Vietnam on the federal budget resulted in deficiency appropriations of more than $2 billion this year. Another supplemental request of several sev-eral billion is expected to come to Congress in January. If the advice in the yearbook were followed, the federal fed-eral government would decide which of its wants are "less important, important, very important." It would look nt the day-to-day expenses and "try to trim them." Instead, vast new domestic programs costing billions of dollars now, and uncalculated billions in the years to come, have been passed. At the same time, spiraling living costs not only his ,the average family, but penalize the poor and the elderly who can least afford it. and the family budget goes down : the drain. |