Show washington snapshots UY by james preston folks probably would rather start off tho the SL new w year thinking about something more inore pleasant than taxes but if they want to keep keel the subject from becoming even enn more pleasant they hail had better think about it the reason is that washington is prowling around looking for more taxes even evell tile the most optimistic cannot see sec on the basis of the new liew federal lc deral budget how the ua na dional government can call avoid spending more than it takes in unless it increases taxes the lawmakers are in a spot tills this la 13 au an election year cuts cats are getting tired of seeing red figures on oil undo uncle sams books ot et the end cud of each year but the only way tho the congressmen can call eliminate tho the figures is to cut expenditures borrow wore more money rals raise taxes or try some combination of these three devices and it also la Is considered politically unwise to increase taxes or reduce government handouma hand ban outa douts in ili an election year I 1 what the congressmen now seek beck Is a painless tax a tax that the fi average voter pays without realizing it the truth is that already wore more than halt half the governments income Is collected that way secretary recently calculated that consumers paid 03 03 per cent of 1038 1938 taxes these were levies like those on tobacco gasoline and what are called excise taxes but which actually are sales taxes of course the now new dealers like taxes of that kind they can call spend and spend evena and the average citizen does not realize that lie Is paying taxes which the government gives back to him in the form of relief or benefit payments or a new post office after deducting tile the cost ot or handling the money in short tile the taxpayer thinks lie he is getting something for nothing henry T rainey of illnois once speaker of the house ot of representatives senta tives pa rn pi t based the remark reni arli of A a noted french expert on oil fin fill mice ance on otic one ocen acension sion tu to explain this philosophy lie ito sald said tile the ideal inet hotl of tax collee cioll la Is to got get the most feathers feat lier with the least of the goose secretary wallace who is in gai ing for it a revival of 0 tile tho processing bilies under tho the disguised name nalila certificate plau plan is a follower of that of the other tiny lie he was quoted as saying at it a press conference tile the great advantage of the corthe certificate plan Is ia that it does not appear in ili the budget I 1 if it appears in tho budget people tollit to it und say ay sly my how large tho the budget Is in ili other words wh what atthe alie people dont know wont hurt them an ali interesting sidelight on oil tile the whole system of hidden taxes la Is that a washington newspaperman several years ngo was tile alie innocent of a means by which those these hidden e axes were increased tremendously it hap happened penea this way the house ways and means cleans committee was battling with the tax problem it bad boosted income taxes us its high as it thought it could it had burdened burd med corporations with all the taxes they could coula stand and it still needed money one committeeman explained this to the newspaper reporter who otter thinking inking tb a min a isaa ute aceil well why dont you put a tax on electric tora the rhe snapped up tile tho sugg esdon it worked out a system under whid i consumers pay millions lu in taxes annually without knowing wing it the government go eminent now nut not only taxes refrigerators but jadlos automobiles and access or les iea chewing guiti guin lipstick cold cre crealia alil shotguns and dozens of similar things it so long ago that attorney general murphy said that a billion dollars a year eai could be saved in government costs by lopping il million employees off all public payrolls but loss less than a month th ago the total number ol of people on oil the federal payroll reached the highest figure in history aud and just since I 1 murphy made that suggestion the federal debt has increased more than it a billion and a halt half dollars Ix experts even including some iu in the treasury say taxes in many fields already have reached the th point of diminishing returns by that they mean in effect that the tax rates are arc so high that they brin bring in less money than they would if they were lower that some people dont care to make more money because just have to turn it over to the government statistically the truth Is that in tile the only 12 cents out ot of every emy dollar of income produced was taken in taxes for purposes of f government but today the figure Is 21 cents that Is 19 progress toward a govern government men t ivsich takes till nil of money and does with it as it sees tit fit |