AMERICAN BUDGET

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 9, 8 December 1932, Page 7

AMERICAN BUDGET

DRASTIC REDUCTIONS. RIGID ECONOAIIES. SALARIES TO BE REDUCED. (United Press Association—By Elect: Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received December 8, 8.55 a.m. WASHINGTON, Dec. i President Hoover to-day presente j Congress a drastically reduced Butrecommending a 2( per cent. mani(| turd's’ excise tax, retention of gasoline tax and rigid economi chiding an additional 11 per cen in Government salaries and “slash” in veterans’ benefits. He; for total appropriations of 4,21 . 344 dollars, saying that tho net e.\ ditures would total 3,256,35'

against receipts of 2,949,162,713 no j lars, leaving a deficit of 307,192, su . It was to offset this that the new ti.. ( tion was proposed. No mention of wav"*, debts was made in the Presidential message, but tho report of tho Score- , tary of the Treasury, Air Ogden Mills, ' which was 1 sent simultaneously, disclosed that the payments due from foreign nations had been included in , striking tho Government’s balance. Neither did the President make any mention of legislation concerning beer, tho estimated internal revenue collections including no figure from this source. * In his veteran economy proposals the President defied the clamouring for payments of a bonus and the maintenance of the present benefits by recommending to Congress legislation which, 1 would strip 127,000,000 dollars’ worth of pensions, compensation and allowances off the rolls. The new sales tax is estimated to yield 355,000,000 dollars. 'L’lio Budget provided 586,477,000 dollars for national defence compared with 632,466,000 dollars last year. SOAIE OF THE VOTER

The largest item of estimated expenditure is 931,077,000 dollars for ex-serr-vice men. Tlie Navy Department appropriation is 308,000,000 dollars and that for tlie War Department 276,000,000 dollars. . . The naval appropriation includes some 4,400.000 dollars for the modernisation of two battleships and 38,845,000 dollars for the construction of new vessels, including two eight-inch gun cruisers and four destroyers.

TREASURY REPORT.

AIANUFACTURERS’ LEVY.

Received December 8, 9.55 a.m. WASHINGTON, Dec. 7.

The turbulent sales tax issuo was tossed squarely hack into tlie lap of Congress by the Secretary to tho Treasury, Air Ogden Alills, with the recommendation that a 21 per cent, general manufacturers’ levy be adopted. In his annual report the Secretary said that the present specific excise taxes adopted last session by Congress failed to produce the expected revenue. He proposed their repeal and directly asked tho House to reverse itself. Only six months ago that body bolted from its leadership to vote down a li per cent, sales tax, after a study of the Canadian sales tax method. Tho issue was not even brought to a voto in the Senate. A drastic reduction in governmental expenditures is insisted upon by tho Secretary, who predicted that the present fiscal year would end next Juno with a deficit of 1,146,000,000 dollars, and the following year, at the • present pace, with a deficit of 307,000,000, exclusive of debt retirement. He said that the Government spending could be reduced by 479,000,000 dollars in the 1934 fiscal year if the recommendations made by the President in his Budget message were followed. It was not feasible, lie said to provide for a resumption of the normal reduction of tlie public debt in 1934, but he urged that otherwise the Budget be balanced. Tho Secretary said that while it had been estimated last Alay that the income of the Government in the 1933 fiscal year would amount to 3,098,000,000 dollars, revised estimates indicated that it would total 2.624,000,000 dollars Tlio Customs duties were now estimated at 290,000,000 dollars, a drop of 60,000,000 dollars from tlio Alay estimate, and the income taxes a-t 860,000,000, a drop of 176,000,000 dollars.