Elementary Arithmetic

The problem of keeping the Federal Government within its budget is as complicated as the Einstein theory plus Parkinson's Law. But the simple arithmetic that Budget Director Maurice Stans put on the public blackboard last week showed that the problem is getting well out of hand. The fiscal year is only 2j months old, but the budget is already in the red:

BUDGET ESTIMATED

Income $74.4 billion

Spending $73.9 billion

------

$ .5 billion,

ESTIMATED Income $67 billion

Spending $79.2 billion

------

$12.2 billion

Estimated revenues are falling short of the budgeted total of $74.4 billion, mostly because of the recession. Principal items are off like this:

Income taxes $2.5 billion

Corporation taxes $3.7 billion

Excise taxes $ .9 billion

Customs, etc. $ .3 billion

Total shortfall $7.4 billion

Expenses are up from the budgeted $73.9 billion to an unexpected $79.2 billion, with increases such as this:

Farm program $1.9 billion

Housing programs $1 billion

Post Office $ .6 billion

Unemployment $ .5 billion

Defense $ .5 billion

Other domestic programs $ .8 billion

Total overspending $5.3 billion

There was something else about Budget Director Stans's report that any schoolboy could plainly see: the biggest unexpected increase in spending came not in defense, or even in fighting the recession: it came in the scandalous, runaway farm subsidy payments that raised the agriculture budget for the current prosperous farm year to an outrageous $6.9 billion.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.