Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart washington isow now that the pres dent has laid before congress his request for the new national appropriations finan debt caal students are wondering w 0 n dering more and more when the e end nd of this government spending Is to come it will be remembered that mr roosevelt said a year ago that the total public debt should not exceed and that that figure should be reached around june 30 1935 when it Is con that the present public debt exceeds it becomes difficult to understand how the dent will succeed in sticking to his original assertion to hold the national debt at the figure named the treasury department has just released its annual report and this reveals an increase in the public debt of approximately six billion dollars since june 30 1933 1033 an eighteen months rec ord it has made the total cost of the recovery spending program aggregate something over twelve billion dollars since january 1 1031 1931 when the spend ing spree really began lo 10 make the vast amount more readily comprehensible hen sible it if you take the time to figure it out you will find that the govern ment has been spending borrowed money at the rate of almost twenty three thousand dollars a minute in the last tour four years to illustrate further the magnitude of this sum a figure ft u re es ex pert here has calculated that there has been about one billion minutes since the birth of christ and therefore the federal government in the last tour four years has added about twelve dollars to the public debt for each of the min utes since christ came on earth but to get back to the present plan presentation of the budget with its maximum outlay of around seven bil lion ron dollars recalled to some leaders the assertion by the president respect ing the topmost limit tor for the public debt in the budget message which he presented just a sear ago mr roosevelt boldly stated his belief that the government should seek to hold the public debt to the figure of furthermore he added the gov eminent during the balance of this calendar year should plan to bring its expenditures including recovery and relief within the revenues expect ed in the fiscal year 1938 1936 the fiscal year 1930 1936 begins next july I 1 and frequent pronouncements from the white house have made it clear that a balanced budget in that time Is quite unlikely in addition the treasury said in its annual report that taxes always lagged behind in reflecting recovery of the country for example income taxes to be paid on march 15 1938 1936 and in the subsequent install ini ments of that year bear will be the result of levies on earnings of the current calendar year no one exi ejects acts earn ings in 1935 to be normal it Is ob therefore that the balancing of the budget in the fiscal year begin P ning july 1 1935 becomes almost a physical impossibility unless the pres ident should do the unexpected by cutting off every one of the sixty five or more recovery and relief agencies and should cut off all federal funds for relief of the destitute if that were done it Is estimated by fiscal ex that ordinary receipts by the treasury would come close to meeting the ord nary cost of the regularly es governmental agencies there had been frequent contentions by avid new dealers that mr vr roosevelt s second budget presidents president recommendations View provide a clear picture of his gener al fiscal policies if their statements remain true they resulted in setting up one of the most paradoxical condl eions in the history of this nation looking back over the whole roosevelt period the thing which observe ers have never been able adequately to explain is who or what effected the change in the presidents views on fundamental financial questions it Is too obvious to precipitate an ment that the presidents views have changed when one goes back to his first message to congress or beyond that to his campaign speeches and the platform upon which he made the race for the presidency it Is futile to at tempt to reconcile those utterances with the subsequent spending and bor rowing program in which his adminis has indulged it will be recalled that mr air roosevelt declared in his inaugural speech an intention to balance the budget and wipe out the deficit left on his lap by the hoover administration he ile went on to say that if congress in its generosity voted sums that placed the budget out ot of balance it was under the necessity at the same time to provide taxes to raise the excess expenditures since there can be no d that sir mr roosevelt roosevel ts s views have changed and he has acted in accordance with his new found principles the interest ing thing is who brought about the revision of views on the part pirt of the president some of the presidents virulent critics have asserted in the opening days of congress that thit mr air roosevelt was N as wholly uninformed as to the needs with which he was vas con fronted when he was making h s cam laign speeches they say he found his original promise to be all wet and he ile took the only alternative to stave off a bitter row in disown party offering much money foron forIon gress to spend among the presidents friends I 1 have heard private expressions that mr roosevelt had been misled by some of the group who held his ear at the start of the administration these men referred to a number ot of the so called progressive republicans like the ther LaFoIl Larou ettes norris hiram johnson of california and bronson cutting of new mexico several of these were so well liked by the president that they were invited to enter his cabinet consequently there are those who be lieve that mr air roosevelt Koo sevelt followed the advice of tie tl e progressive republican group much more closely than leaders among the old time democrats most of the progressive republicans are spenders at heart according to the tile general view here and they are also men who regard a balanced budget as not very important so while no one can say definitely what influences al the president presidents s stand it certain ly Is regarded among observers here herer as being a situation in which the wind makes the straws point toward the so called progressives as having joined hands with the president in initiating what whit has come to be the greatest out pouring of taxpayers money except in war time since our government was established organization of the new congress has resulted in a new cry in reality a I 1 very old cry but it Is OSo south uth in new since we havethe saddle not hear I 1 it in fifteen years tl TI e cry we are hearing now from republicans and from northern democrats Is the wall that the south Is in the saddle while there certainly can be nothing criminal about the south being in the saddle it provides a grand political Is sue both within the democratic rank ranks and between the tile democratic party and what Is left of the republicans in to congress it also touches a question that has been discussed many times namely the wisdom of the seniority rule in congress the seniority rule pro rides vides that the oldest members in the point of service shall inherit commit tee chairmanships and shall have oth er positions of honor in the house and senate out of the 69 democratic senators only 24 come from what Is known as the solid south of the democrat lc ic members of the house only about are thoroughly acquainted with the yell of the confederacy yet in the face facer of this tremendous growth of demo cratic membership coming out of the horth north and the west the south Is in the saddle more solidly than ever eier the of the house went nent to representative byrns of tennessee who succeeded to the place made madl vacant by the late henry T rainey of illinois mr air byrns had been demo cratic leader and his promotion left a vacancy to which representative will bankhead Cank head of alabama was elected thus moving leadership further to the south the only plum it if it be a plum that went coith of the mason and dixon line was the selection of representative 0 connor of new york as chairman of the rules committee in the senate we see vice president garner the presiding officer a texan the majority leader Is senator robinson of arkansas the powerful corn com cittee on finance Is presided over by harrison of mississippi the senate committee on banking and currency is controlled by fletcher of florida and the committee on agriculture Is head ed by smith of south carolina one could go on and name many others al though I 1 believe the consensus Is that the seniority rule has not worked to produce as many duds for senate corn cittee chairmanships as has occurred in the house democratic leaders in the house have made certain that they will not be cm ein barr assed this year Che checking ching as its they were in the radicals first new deal con gress in that ses slon they were constantly harassed by the radicals who bought sought to force votes on legislation which the president and his advisers did not want and which for the same reason the democratic leaders did not want tl 71 e ac complis hed their purposes b br use of what Is called the rule of discharge of committees cut but that rule hag been amended so that to indol e it now actually a majority of the house will have to sign a petition under the previous rule th the e signa ture of members of the h use was aas sufficient clent to compel the discharge of a committee from consideration of any piece of leo legislation referred to it for action the necessary number of sig natures was obtained in three embar rassing bassing cases list last bear ear the sol soldiers sold leis diets bonus bill was mas brought out by that method the frahler lemke farm mort gage inflation bill was as released tor for a house vote in the same manner the new house how ever Is determined not to be dinbar in that manner it succeeded in democratic clucus binden binding O 0 on all democrats in having haning the original rule amended so that now there must be a majority of all house members affixing their signatures to tl e discharge petition before it becomes op a western newspaper union ll 11 |