AMERICA’S HUGE BUDGET

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22245, 14 January 1944, Page 3

AMERICA’S HUGE BUDGET

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S STATEMENT CRUCIAL PERIOD IN MANKIND’S HISTORY MONEY FOR DECISIVE ACTION IN GLOBAL WAR (Official Wireless) (Received Jan. 14, noon) RUGBY, Jan. 13 President Roosevelt, in a Budget statement to Congress, estimated the United States’ war expenditure in the coming financial year at 90,000,000,000 dollars, contrasting with the current year’s estimate of 92,000,000,000 dollars. The President explained that the Budget covered the year June 30, 1945. “This is a period which I am certain will be crucial in the history of the United States and mankind, a period which will see decisive action in this global war,” said Mr Roosevelt. “While we move toward the complete defeat of our enemies we must lay the groundwork for the return of the nation to peaceful pursuits. We shall continue to adjust the war programme promptly to changing strategic necessities. I shall use all the authority available to prevent needless expenditure. The estimate of 90,000,000,000 dollars was based on the assumption that the war would continue throughout the fiscal year of 1945. “In our military planning, in our production and financial planning, we cannot rely safely on hopes of an earlier victory,” said Mr Roosevelt. “If the war should continue on all fronts through the year or longer, in the spring appropriations would be asked for the armed forces totalling 53,000,000,000 dollars, including Army, 20,000,000,000 dollars and Navy, 33,000,000,000 dollars. In 1945 the appropriations are estimated at 70,000,000,000 dollars, plus 38,000,000,000 dollars reappropriations, making a total of 108,000,000,000 dollars for 1945. This compares with 115,000,000,000 dollars in the 1944 fiscal year. By the end of the fiscal year of 1945 the United States will have appropriated about 397,000,000,000 dollars, hut of that 105,000,000,000 dollars will be unexpected, so the total cost of the war to that time will be about 292,000,000,000 dollars. The total war programme from June, 1940, to December, 1943, totals 344,000,000,000 dollars. By adding to this the 42,000,000,000 dollars in the new appropriations, 10,000,000,000 dollars in new contracts, 1,500,000,000 dollars for the Army and Navy between now and May 1, a total of about 397,000,000,000 dollars is reached.

Period of Decisive Action “As we win the battle of the production of the instruments of modern war we enter a period of decisive action on many battlefields throughout the world. We have attained superiority in war production. Production alone, however, does not assure victory. We must fight—and fight hard.” Mr Roosevelt said the military expenditure in 1940-41 was only onetenth of the current annual estimate. The rapid increase in war expenditures mirrored the gigantic effort in which the country had converted and diverted half its resources to war purposes. In the production of munitions the United States now almost equalled the rest of the world. A situation had now been reached in which there was an excess of supplies of some types of munitions and deficiencies in others. These excesses and deficiencies depended on rapidly-changing strategic conditions. Every effort was made to adapt production to changing conditions as rapidly as possible. A special committee, under the joint Cihefs of Staff, was scrutinising military requirements item by item, cutting out or cutting back the programme in the light of strategic developments. The lend-lease requirements of the Allies were subject to similar scrutiny. The construction |of many escort vessels had been cancelled to push the construction of landing vessels. In a number of cases labour and material had also been released for urgent domestic needs of indirect war importance. Time for High Taxes Mr Roosevelt said the total expenditure in the fiscal year. of 1945 was estimated to exceed the net receipts by 59,000,000,000 dollars. Without further legislalion the deficit will amount to 59 per cent of the total expenditures, approximately the same as the comparable ratio in the current fiscal year. “In October, 1943, the revenue programme was presented as calling for additional wartime taxes of 10,500.000,000 dollars. Those recommendations are still under consideration by Congress and I wish to stress the need of additional wartimes taxes, at least the amount re-