Word: budgeteer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...attempting it by a piece of characteristic Rooseveltian strategy. If he had cut his Relief figure below $1,500,000,000, Congressional spenders would have gobbled up the difference for pet projects not under direct White House control. Therefore, instead of making a forthright effort to balance the Budget by reduced appropriation or increased taxes, the President was deliberately setting up a deficit in order to scare Congressmen out of further spending. When Congress had adjourned he could set about economy by spending less than he was authorized to do. In short, a present paper deficit might make possible...
...while I recognize many opportunities to improve social and economic conditions through Federal action, I am convinced that the success of our whole program and the permanent security of our people demand that we adjust all expenditures within the limits of my Budget estimate." All last week Congressmen pondered these words, the first they had heard in such a vein from Franklin Roosevelt in nearly four years. Most were pleased that the President's good intentions towards the Budget corresponded with their own-pleased and a little uneasy as they wondered just how much action such good intentions required...
Relief. Chief topic of anxiety was Relief-how much and how little. After pondering that question for three month; the only information that the President gave was one sentence, a request of $1,500,000,000 for work relief in fiscal 1938. This figure, biggest in the Budget was the most debatable, since anybody's guess of the number of unemployed is as good as anyone's else. No sooner had the figure been announced than the President's friend Senator James F. Byrnes of South Carolina proclaimed that $1,000,000,000 would be plenty...
Deficit. The punch behind the President's economy drive was his revealing an estimated deficit of $2,557,000,000 for the fiscal year ending two months hence ($309,000,000 bigger than anticipated) of a $418,000,000 deficit for fiscal 1938 when the Budget was supposed to balance. Primary cause of these deficits is the failure of actual revenue to come up to the expectations of last January. This meant that instead of the public debt reaching a peak of $35,026,000,000 on July 1 and then receding, it would kee on going...
This news put Congressmen in an economizing mood. Senator Byrnes made another proposal, to knock a flat 10% off the Budget estimates for all expenses except payments on the public debt. In the House Republican John Taber of Aubun N. Y., moved to send the Department of Agriculture $925,000,000 appropriation bill back to the Committee to have 10% lopped off. The House did not want to economize on the farmers and New Dealers did not want to adopt a Republican's motion. Only 32 members voted...