RECORD U.S. BUDGET

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31590, 30 January 1968, Page 15

RECORD U.S. BUDGET

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Jan. 29.

President Johnson today presented to Congress a Federal budget for the 1969 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, of a record-breaking $186,100m, an increase of $10,500m on the present year.

It Includes $25,800m for the Vietnam war and $54,000m for other defence costs, but the amount to be set aside for America’s space programme, 84600 m, is s2lBm less than this year. “We will not abandon the field of planetary exploration,” President Johnson said in his budget message to Congress, “and I am recommending the development of a new spacecraft for launching in 1973 to orbit and land on Mars.”

The Mars project, which will be under way in 1969, will serve as “a building block” for planetary exploration systems of the future. The budget, which placed heavy emphasis on a 10 per eent tax surcharge, made no provision for any additional

expenditure in South-East Asia as a result of the Pueblo crisis in North Korea. The total income envisaged by President Johnson is estimated at $175,600m, but this figure assumes that Con-

gress will agree to all the tax increases he asks for. Thus, the deficit is sBooom with the proposed tax increases and $20,900m without them. The sum of $57,700m is earmarked for domestic programmes intended to improve the health, welfare, education, housing and community environment of Americans. This represents an increase of $6500m over the current year. There is heavy emphasis on expanded housing and jobtraining programmes, aimed at the key causes of urban disorders. Other major outlays are: $4600m for America’s space programme; $4500m for agriculture: $2500m for natural resources; $4400m for foreign aid, including the “food for freedom” programme; sBooom for transportation and commerce; s7loom for veterans; and $1440m for interest on the Public Debt