Stretching the Revenue

"Devious" was House Republican Leader Gerald Ford's word for the Administration's request. "A gigantic crap game, with the taxpayer the only one who loses." Actually, in asking Congress last week for broader authority to sell Government-held loans to private investors, President Johnson was resorting to a revenue-stretching device that was pioneered by the Eisenhower Administration.

Since every loan dollar sold would be counted as a dollar saved under the federal accounting system, the measure would have the effect of reducing the Government's deficit by $4.7 billion in the coming fiscal year. Despite Ford's criticism, few Congressmen, even those unsympathetic to the Administration, would be likely to accept the alternatives, a tax boost or a sharp reduction in domestic spending, or even offer spirited opposition to a scheme that their constituents could hardly understand. The House Banking Committee found it reasonable enough, approved the bill by a vote of 22 to 3 less than 24 hours after it was submitted.

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