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Show 4- ' x 4. i flo Cowment , WASHINGTON Congressional economy leaders now are not only demanding that the $71.8 billion budget be cut they are pointing out how to do it. And they are hopeful that taxpayers will continue to shower Congress with mail urging economy. Reports from Congressional offices show no slackening thus far in the economy mail. Congressional consideration of the many appropriation appropria-tion bills which make up the budget now is under way. Committee hearings and action will go on until the last bill is cleared, probably in late June. Thus economy leaders say, there should be no let up In the demands de-mands of taxpayers for relief , for cutting the budget for reduction re-duction of the national debt or for lowering of taxes. SOME WAYS TO CUT Concrete J plans for budget cutting range from $2 billion to more than $8. billion. A simple way, some economy advocates say, is for Congress to resolve to hold appropriations to last year's level. This was $2.9 billion undert he proposed budget. bud-get. A Nebraska Congressman Rep. A. 1 Miller thinks Con. gress can reduce the budget by $8 billion if it really is economy, minded. Speaking from considerable consid-erable experience, he lists ways' in which he thinks this can be accomplished. Increasing efficiency of govern-ment govern-ment and reducing unnecessary functions, he says, could save $5 billion. The number of government govern-ment employees, now 2,400,000 could be cut 10 per cent. New federal activities, such as federal feder-al aid to education, could be avofcled. Foreign aid could be cut. Senator Bridges of New Hampshire, Hamp-shire, a leader on the Senate Appropriations Ap-propriations Committee, has lifted lift-ed his sights. Close study of the budget has convinced him that $2.5 billion to $3.3 billion can be saved more if Congress agrees. Many items on the budget, he says, cannot be cut. These include in-clude Interest on the national j debt, commitments to veterans, trust funds which affect widows and orphans, and the like. But. he says. Congress could save $575 miilion by the simple expedient of limiting public works expenditures to the 1956 figure. He thinks $750 million could be taken out of the defense de-fense budget. Foreign aid, he says, could be reduced $1.2 billion, bil-lion, and several hundred million mil-lion could be saved by miscellaneous miscel-laneous reductions. OTHER AVENUES OF SAVINGS SAV-INGS Meantime, Secretary of Agriculture Benson, heeding the President's Injunction to departments depart-ments to seek to save money, proposed a cut in farm props to save $200 million annually. But his economy plan faces stiff op-positior op-positior in Congress with some members of the farm bloc seeking seek-ing to greatly expand farm plan costs. Benson seeks to reduce surpluses, sur-pluses, and thus permit farmers to get what he thinks is a proper return in the market place. FIRST BIG BUDGET BILL Al-though Al-though Chairman Clarence Can-non Can-non of the House Appropriations Committee assailed the Eisenhower Eisen-hower budget, the first regular appropriation bill voted out by his committee carried a cut of but two per cent. The bill for the Treasury and Post Office Departments carried a total of $3,884,927,000 to run the departments for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The com-mlttee com-mlttee cut $80.3 million from the budget recommendation. |