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Show fjTll EDITORIAL " It is to be hoped that one ill-advised proposal of the last Congress --the --the so-called "Humphrey-Hawkins" or "Full Employment" bill --will --will be quickly, decisively and permanently laid to rest when our legislators return to Washington. Of all the possible measures that might be taken to "help" our economy, the Humphrey-Hawkins proposal is the very worst. In essence, the idea is that the government will "create" jobs and thus put people to work -- financed by the taxpayers. The trouble is, we already have thousands upon thousands of people on the government payroll who are filling "jobs" of highly dubious value. And there can be no question but that our over-blown bureaucracy is not helping, but seriously harming our economy. Senator William Roth of Delaware, in a recent article (Reader's Digest, Nov. 1976) points out that under the broad umbrella of "domestic assistance" Congress has created 1,030 separate programs, administered by 52 different agencies which are costing us not millions, but billions of dollars - and only the Lord knows how many thousands of bureaucrats to shuffle paper. In the health field alone, reports Senator Roth, we have 302 programs administered by 11 different agencies; while in "community development" we have no less than 259 programs! One could concede that Congress might create one agency to handle water-pollution research and development (although it could be strongly argued that this should be left to the individual States). But no; our spend thrifts in legilative clothing created twenty -five bureaus in 14 different departments to decide how to launder water. And the list goes on and on. By now, even the most mentally incompetent member of Congress (we'll leave it to others to decide who that might be) must know that a "job" that is dependent upon a government handout is not a job. Putting everybody to work for the Federal government is not "full employment"; it is a combination rip-off and shell-game. There are, of course, some absolutely essential tasks to be performed per-formed by the Federal Government. Our national defense is one of them. Oddly enough, while adding people to the Federal payroll, Congress has been putting people out of work in defense industries. Crazy! It's time for our Congress to wise up and get back on the right track. |