The Buck That Wasn't Passed

For another year, at least, the U.S.

Government was committed to a lordly policy of living beyond its means. Harry Truman had already given the policy his approval. In January he had deplored deficit spending, but by July he had decided that deficit spending would be all right. In fact, said he, it was necessary for "continued economic expansion." "Last week the Senate voted in effect to underwrite Harry Truman's economics.

It was the practical end of a long and less than noble fight. Despite all the talk about economizing, the House had only pecked away at the President's own bloated budget. The Senate in turn had only pecked away at the House's appropriations; more frequently the Senate had actually increased the sums recommended by the House. A small, bipartisan bloc of economy-minded Senators had fought steadily for 5%-to-10% cuts, but just as steadily a Senate majority had overruled them. The discouraged economizers tried the only course left to them. They tried to pass the buck back to the President.

When the military appropriation bill came up last week, Arkansas' dark and taciturn John McClellan proposed a rider directing the President to cut all money measures by at least 5%, and a maximum of 10%. Amidst bellows from Administration leaders that this was a "sham and pretense," to say nothing of an inglorious surrender of Congress' control of the national purse, McClellan's resolution went down.

Unavailing was the argument of the Senate economizers that there was plenty of logic in the measure: only the department involved could know enough about itself to know where it could economize. A majority present (49 to 28) voted for the economy resolution. But because a two-thirds majority is necessary to suspend the rules (writing legislation into an appropriation bill is against the rules), the resolution died.

The economy drive died with it. In passing the military bill the Senate did bravely lop about $1 billion off the House's bill (providing for a 48-group instead of the House's 58-group Air Force). A few money bills, including foreign military aid, remained for the Senate to work on and there might be some further whittling when House and Senate conferees got together to settle on final sums. But there was little chance that any important cuts would be made.

From the Truman Democrats' side, the argument was that hardly any of the budget items really could be touched. The biggest outlay, a total of $32 billion, Harry Truman said, was for wars, past and future. The U.S., already in the red a quarter of a trillion dollars, would plunge anywhere from $3 billion to $8 billion deeper in the red by the end of this fiscal year.

Virginia's Harry Byrd, who had led the futile economy fight, calculated that "Since the war ... we have reduced the debt 3% . . . Now we propose to start another chain of annual debt increases."

Last week the Senate also:

P: Increased the 40-c- national minimum wage to 75-c- an hour. About 1,130,000 workers are expected to get wage increases under the bill. The Senate excluded about 250,000 workers from the 22,000,000 now covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Among those left out were newsboys making home deliveries, messenger boys under the age of 18, women who sit at home sewing covers on baseballs.

P: Took off for a week's recess (House members had already gone home for four weeks, while the slowpoke Senate was catching up).

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