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3 Tax Foundation's Washington News 1 (1951)

handle is hein.tera/wingnews0004 and id is 1 raw text is: EXPENDITURES . . 9%..7. January 5, 1951 Vol. 2__ No. 1 A 1.0 920 Washington Building Washington 5, D. C. This week the 31st Congress blew out like a lion, and the 82nd blew in like a lamb. The hectic pace of the 'flame duck session which ended on Tuesday contrasts strangely with the quiet now pervading the halls of Congress wlile the new session awaits the President's State of the Union message. During the last days of the old session, Congress completed action on 1) a compromise excess profits ta: bill, variously estimated to yield from $3.3 billion to over $5 billion in new revenue; 2) a supplementl a)propriation bill raising fiscal 1951 defense funds by $20 billion; 3) a $3.1 billion civil defense bill, of which approximately a.5 billion Must come from matching state funds; and h) a war powers bill allowing the President to facilitate and expedite war contracts, but deleting the re- quested power to reshuffle emergency executive agencies. The schedule for the President's various messages to the new Congress calls for the State of the Union message on ionday, January 8, to be fol- lowed by his economic message later in thc week, and the budget for 1952 on the following Monday, January 15. Despite early predictions that a new third installnentl tax bill -.ould be introduced at the start of the 32nd Conress it now appears that there will be no detailed tax message for at least several weeks. Guesstimatos as to the fiscal picture for 1952 now place the new budget figures somewhere between $72 and $75 billion -- always subject to change, probably upward, in the event of a changed international situation. The details of the huge defense spending planned for the next fiscal year arc a) arently not yet available3 and may not be for sevral months -- it is expected that the budget mossage next wock will contain a tentative to- tal figure for national defense, probably betwoon $12 and $ billion, but no brcakdown of the total into its component parts. In his recent address to the nation, the President cited three es- sentials in the nation's fiscal program -- credit controls, higher taxes, and reduction of nonessential government spending. Credit restrictions are already in effect and may become tighter; taxus are highor, and will reach now levcls before the end of the year; now legislators are waiting to see what the new budget proposeS in the way of reduced federal spending in nondefense categories.