| Show Bruc karts washington Washing fon digest home folks fed up on war talk want to know about tax problem considerable transition from interest in european affairs to domestic concerns on part of public noted treasury to borrow more afore money by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press kids biag washington D C washington observers here in washington have a little way of their own by which they are able to fori forecast cast the trend of public thought and interest it Is a method that was developed solely from experience most of us who attempt to serve you outside of washington as eyes and ears cars have learned to watch the demand for speakers and subjects upon which public men are asked to talk it Is not an infallible method but it Is usually c correct or the only fly in the ointa ointment ent is that we must learn to distinguish between the propaganda preachers and the legitimate desires of groups to have government questions explained to them it Is to be noted here by way of review that three months ago the bulk of the leeches by men from washington had to do with war our chances of getting involved neu tra lity etc there were interspersed epe i ased with these ot of course the j usual truckloads truck loads of guff from secretary wallace and the other self appointed spokesmen for agriculture rinds and cracklings crac klings from secretary ickes and about the usual quantity of mou things from the superior minds whose owners are greatly concerned in development of culture liberal thinking but it was about the war and related subjects that most people wanted to know the scene Is changing now indeed a considerable transition at already has taken place home folks are getting fed up at last and are desirous of 0 knowing more about home problems and what the government intends to do about them it Is a trend most plea pleasant sint to contemplate there simply can be no doubt about the fact that tf if the people of the united states forget about that war in europe and pay attention to their own business we will be able to stay out rather easily cornea comes an Awa awakening hening to the problem of taxation with this background then let mo macall ball attention to the number of persons who appear at long last to have awakened to the problem of taxation federal state county and city obviously when there is an interest in taxation there is a parallel interest in what government does with the money taken from its citizens this interest surely exists now to a greater extent than at any time within recent months more end and more inquiries are being received ce alved more and more requests for discussion of the subject are reaching officials in washington and if t my information from outside sources be correct there is a similar interest being shown in the states and cities in this period of changing interest secretary Morge nthan ani bounced that the united states treasury is prepared to borrow more money in the next two months according to the secretary the treasury will borrow an additional halt half a billion dollars it will refund something like a billion and a quarter also but that process is simply trading new bonds or notes for old ones that tall fall due the borrowing is new money in the sense that new bonds will be sold and the proceeds used by the treasury to meet expenses and naturally the national debt will be increased by that amount it is well to remember that as of november 1 the public debt was and that there are several other billions of bonds issued by such agencies as the reconstruction finance corporation pori horation po ration tion the home owners loan corporation and debts guaranteed guaran teed by agencies like the federal flous housing administration tor for which the treasury Is morally it if not actually responsible it Is not curious therefore that folks are asking each other where is this spending going to or how bow are we going to pay off that debt or what are our taxes going to be in the future futures tax receipts for nation astounding in magni magnitude tude I 1 am indebted to the federation af pf of tax administration for some totals ot of tax receipts tor for the nation that att are not only astounding in their magnitude but startling in the implications they give the statistics disclose that the american people paid in taxes in n 1938 this money was collected by the federal state county and city governments and some odds odd and ends of special taxing districts which levied taxes for especial purposes of this amount the federal government collected state governments I 1 collected and local governments took a toll tall of one of the new tax esthe tax on payrolls payroll to maintain pensions and unemployment yielded in excess of or a almost ost one tenth of all of the money taken by the tax lax collector its total seems to give substance to the complaint that this tax is a tremendous burden on any one who hires workers the pay roll tax according to the a administrators tra tors analysis was the third largest of single items of tax taxation atlon only the property tax and the income tax brought in more money for the spenders of federal state or local governments property taxes levies on ev everything cry you own your house or f farm arm or horses or automobile paid a total tribute of if you are good at figures you will find that sum to be ta per cent almost one e third of all of the taxes paid by the united states lost last year income taxes ranked second in the sums produced tor for governmental use the income taxes laid by federal state and city governments supplied and that is 22 per cent of the re revenue vende another group includes the concealed levies but there is another group ot of taxes a long list of items that include most of the sneak thief taxes unseen and concealed levies that really Is bearing down these general and special sales taxes federal stamp levies excise and license taxes were responsible tor for slightly more than one fourth of all money paid into treasuries of government this money came from tobacco liquor gasoline sales taxes of varl various kinds which you saw only by close examination or could not discover cover at all licenses etc the gasoline tax was the largest revenue pro producer lucer federal state and local governments obtained because most of us b burned up gasoline through use of the motor cars liquor revenue amounted to it is said by some authorities that this type tyke of tax has about reached its peak to increase it more will mean that bootleggers can begin to operate once more because added taxes will send the price of liquor to a point where bootlegging becomes profitable table such Is not the case with the other taxes in the group you pay them and like it all ali in all the administrators analysis shows ten general groupings of taxes throughout the nation and it is interesting to note that each of these ten major items Is used by more than one level of government ern ment that is to say the federal and state governments will be found using income taxes states and counties and cities will be found mushig ing some types of sales taxes along with a similar tax by the national government and some of the other taxes may be found employed as revenue producers by two or all three of the levels of government which brings us to a recent speech made by john W hanes undersecretary under secretary of the treasury mr hanes arrived at a conclusion that only a general increase in business would provide enough income tor for all of the tax eaters he suggested that there were few if any untapped sources of income insofar as the federal government is concerned and other students have talked frankly about the similarity of tax problems among the federal state and local governments C cut ut in in personal exempt exemptions ions would add only 60 millions the school of thought that has advocated broadening the base of income taxes by the federal government by reducing the personal exemptions empt ions from 2500 for married couples and 1000 for single persons was shown by mr hanes to be somewhat ignorant of facts he pointed out that an exemption of 2000 for married couples and tor for single persons instead of the present limits would add only a year to the national revenue that is not a goo goob drop in the bucket if all of the I 1 besent resent income tax amendments that have been mentioned were now in force the total taxes they would yield would be only about according to mr hanes hence mr hanes said with reference to the federal government you the american public have the mal final control demands from rom back home upon the congress tor for more and more federal expenditures tor for less and less needed projects are at least a partial bouwe of ct diffIcult difficulties les we have developed ou our country a appetite with a pocketbook I 1 think our problem Is not so much when we balance our budget as where in other words how much federal expenditure are you going to demand and how dodou do you propose that thai the government raise the funds 1 I am hoping that the apparent trend toward a public consciousness of the governments financial condi tion lion whether that government be national or state or local will expand and begin to roll like mountain flood waters |
