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4 The Tax Review 1 (1943)

handle is hein.tera/tafoutaxt0006 and id is 1 raw text is: JANUARY 1943 THE TAX REVIEW Copyright, 1943, by Tax Foundation, New York, N. Y. THE BUDGET FOR 1944 While the budget message sent to the Congress on January 11, 1943 announced federal expenditures in excess of $100 billion for the twelve-month period ending June 30, 1944, the actual amount that will be spent will be determined by the appropriation acts. News of the $100 billion budget had scarcely been an- nounced when a supplemental request was made for an additional $4 billion for ship construction. Appropria- tions have exceeded actual expenditures to such an extent that there is now $170 billion of unspent war appropriations and authorizations of which one third is not obligated or committed. Although the urgent necessities of war planning make it impossible to keep expenditures and appropriations exactly in balance, a continuing excess of $70 to $80 billion will mean in- evitable waste and extravagance that cannot be justified T HE budget message for the fiscal year 1944, dated January 6 and sent to Congress on January 11, 1943, announced that total federal expenditures for the year in question would exceed $100 billion. This is a far cry from the time, only little more than forty years ago, when the country was excited by the news that federal appropriations were to exceed $1 billion. Then the general reaction was one of pride and approval. This is a billion dollar country was the way the general approval was phrased. Today, the news of expenditures exceeding $100 billion can be received only with grim apathy, because no one can comprehend such a sum and because it becomes a fiscal symbol of the cost of total war. The actual amount that will be spent in the fiscal year 1944 will be determined by the appropriation acts rather than by the budget. But the budget does establish the plane upon which appropriations are to be considered. It is stated that there are available about $170 billion of unspent war appropriations and authorizations, of which two thirds are already obligated or committed. The story of appro- priations and expenditures for the fiscal years 1942-1944, at this stage of our war program. In its failure to recommend a positive wartime fiscal program and its indefiniteness on the prospect for further cuts in nonwar expenditures the message was disappoint- ing. An additional $16 billion in taxes or savings or a combination of both was urged and the closing of loop- holes recommended, but there was no outline of a con- structive program that would yield the amount of re- venues required and act as a brake on inflation. Savings were claimed in nonwar expenditures but the classifica- tion of expenditures lacks definiteness and for that reason is unconvincing. In one major activity, aids to agriculture, the budget proposed expenditures of $837 million. Economies demanded by the tremendous costs of the war make this stand out as an example of un- necessary and unjustifiable extravagance. as presented in the President's budget message, is as follows: Excess of Approriations Year Appropriations Expenditures over enditures (In billions of dollars) 1942 ..........................118.1 32.5 85.6 1943 . ...................... 85.0 80.4(a) 4.6 1944 ...................... ... 87.8(b) 104.1(b) - 16.3 Total ..................290.9 217.0 73.9 The excess of appropriations made in 1942 and 1943 over the expenditures for 1942 represents the amount stated above as unspent appropriations, which are now encumbered by the expenditures to date in the current fiscal year and by commitments yet to be liquidated. The excess of appropriations over expenditures established in 1942 is to be carried forward into 1944 with only moderate abatement. No one supposes that in the accelerating tempo of war preparation and war effort, appropriations can or should be kept in exact balance with expenditures. On the (a) estimated (b) recommended in the budget 1 VOLUME IV No. 1

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