Editorial

...Conference of Mayors, to name a few, began attacking the expected cuts...

...However much the denizens of Manhattan and Cambridge, Mass, may regard Mr...

...Nixon's words, to get government off your back and out of your pocket...

...Nixon apparently believes that such a combination of events and ideas has occurred and is attempting to harness the much heralded taxpayers revolt," with its signs of individual anomie which usually indicate imminent changes in political and social institutions, to help create his "New Federalism...

...Although the media may still dote on the esoteric and exotic tax reforms concocted in various think-tanks, the majority of working people are not interested...

...and the disadvantaged themselves got little but broken promises," the President said...

...The American people deserve compassion that works - not simply compassion that means well...

...The question now is which side will do the best research on a vast array of government programs and policy, and which side will demonstrate superior will and ability in hammering its message home to the public...

...In the Senate the liberals are clearly in the saddle and Administration hopes are bleak...

...Consequently, reaction to the proposed cuts has been both swift and predictable...

...The public policy philosophy they represent may now be about to bear fruit, after being neglected for so long...

...He concluded that: We must do better...

...in fact, some simple arithmetic casts it into sharp relief...

...Paul McCracken, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Nixon, has recently stated that "from 1965 to 1968 the rise in federal, state and local outlays (on a national accounts basis) was equal to almost 57 percent of the rise in national income, and the figure for the period 1968 to 1972 (first quarter) was 48 percent...

...In addition there are even greater future budget savings projected...

...to bury the Great Society," while House Speaker Carl Albert (D.-Okla...

...In the House however, the chances for sustaining possible vetoes are considerably better...

...He described many of the 1960s antipoverty programs as Utopian," pointedly noting that: The money which left Washington in a seemingly inexhaustible flood was reduced to a mere trickle by the time it had filtered through all the layers of bureaucrats, consultants and social workers, and finally reached those whom it was supposed to help...

...The Administration will rely heavily on the work done by the Milton Friedmans, Yale Brozens, Public Interests, and many others...

...Wayne H. Valis...

...Based on preliminary indications, this coalition will have the votes to restore many affected social programs and to reduce defense appropriations, possibly by as much as $5 billion (Senator John McClellan (D...

...called it "a vehicle to make the rich richer...

...On exactly these considerations does the success of Mr...

...Senator Gale McGee (D...

...In addition, Medicare recipients would pay more for their benefits...

...It is pertinent to the budget battle to note that all great political changes occur when, due to a variety of factors, ideas and events meet...

...Senator Harrison Williams (D...

...This is usually expressed by the phrase an idea whose time has come...

...This attempt to regulate conditions at the public trough violates the Golden Rule of Politics: Thou shalt never reduce benefits...

...The strategy of both sides is now clear...

...The coalition will then attempt to shift these defense cuts savings" into the threatened Great Society programs...

...Especially galling to the literati must have been Mr...

...The House, not to be outdone, voted 251 to 142 to restore the quarter billion dollar Rural Environmental Assistance Program (REAP), which the Nixon Administration had eliminated from the budget (and which every president since Truman has tried to abolish...

...claimed it was contemptuous of the real needs of the American people," and Senator Edward Kennedy (D...

...At a minimum it will now be more fully aired than ever before...

...That this apparently elementary fact should escape many observers is somewhat perplexing...

...Ark...

...Mass...

...To them the Nixon budget is as important in breaking fiscal precedent as was the Warren Court in shattering judicial precedent...

...The budget projects sharp cuts or freezes" in such venerable institutions as farm subsidies, tow-income housing, the Office of Economic Opportunity (the showcase of the Great Society), and a wide variety of pork barrel programs...

...Those who make a profession out of poverty got fat...

...He noted that too much money went to those who were supposed to help the needy, and not enough to the needy...

...Instead, they are, quite sensibly, revolting against higher taxes...

...Nixon's domestic policy, and the philosophy upon which it is based, rest...

...Wyo...

...It provides, among other things, for cuts in current spending of $3.1 billion in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, $1.2 billion in the Department of Agriculture, $300 million from the Environmental Protection Agency, $295 million from the Department of Transportation, and $242 million from economic foreign aid...

...Time stated that the budget in effect summons the U.S...

...Gross National Product, with the percentage still growing...

...The Administration will counter this ploy by vetoing increased spending bills, and will then have to rely on having its vetoes upheld, although it has even threatened impounding if overridden on vetoes...

...N.J...

...Combine the necessity for fiscal responsibility with the growing awareness that government has, in many instances, become unresponsive, unmanageable and counterproductive, and the proposed budget should be interpreted as a start, in Mr...

...Even before the budget was announced, a broad coalition of what are euphemistically called citizens groups," including the National Urban League, National Tenants Organization, League of Women Voters, and U.S...

...Among other functions, the budget is a political tool which serves to shape the terms of public policy debate...

...Their response has been reinforced by that ultimate in political bliss, a marriage between principle (i.e., the desire for centralized social welfare programs) and politics (the cuts adversely affect important constituencies, and there is a desire to gear up for the next elections...

...He also understands that this struggle will be won or lost by public pressure created by ideas...

...To their credit, the intellectual and congressional fathers of the Great Society have recognized what they perceive as an attempt to redirect American politics and they are now conducting a highly publicized, well-coordinated campaign to stop it...

...threatened to block all funds for farm programs and Agriculture Department employees unless the Administration relented on farm cuts, saying "That means zilch - no money...

...Minority Leader Gerald Ford (R.-Mich...

...Within a week after the budget was released the Senate showed its dedication to fiscal responsibility by voting overwhelmingly to boost airport subsidies, and to pass a half a billion dollar 'pork barrel" rivers, harbor, and flood control bill...

...The poverty lobby, its academic, congressional, and media allies, and a whole host of special-interest groups have launched an all-out war on the budget...

...The symbolic significance of this action is undeniably great, as evidenced by the outraged howls which have been coming from the "education-poverty-industrial complex," to use Representative Edith Green's phrase...

...In his message on human resources, the President was both blunt and forthright...

...Editorial The Nixon Budget The battle over President Nixon's proposed 1973-74 budget is one of the most important domestic issues to arise in at least a decade and its resolution will have a profound impact on public policy for years to come...

...As cuts and impounding of funds were announced by the Administration, an evergrowing chorus of criticism was raised by congressional liberals, large segments of the media, and conservative legislators whose districts are affected...

...To those who have dominated the debate and given direction to this process for most of the last forty years, a debate over " reordering priorities" along Mr...

...Many fiscally conservative legislators are now torn between desires to reassert fiscal discipline, to cut back on ill-conceived and unworkable social programs, and to bring some order and control to the bureaucratic hydra, on the one hand, and, on the other, the natural urges to avoid offending constituents who might be affected by cuts and to reassert congressional authority vis-a-vis the Executive branch...

...In their view it is not so much that the rate of spending is lessened or that the deficit is halved, it is, rather, that for the first time since the New Deal major social welfare programs have been reduced or eliminated...

...The Wall Street Journal reports that federal government expenditures alone now account for over 21 percent of the U.S...

...He has embarked on an attempt not only to restore fiscal discipline, but to take first steps toward redirecting American political life...

...the taxpayer got stuck with the bill...

...The problem is not an extraordinarily recondite one...

...stated it was 'good news for the big defense contractors and bad news for the average citizen...

...Administration supporters haven't been blessed by any such political union, and their response to date has been sporadic, fragmented, and tentative...

...Seen in this light it is clear that the President's budget is an attempt to keep faith with his constituency...

...The impoundment controversy has unfortunately muddied the waters and caused even greater division among the President's Capitol Hill allies...

...In this first phase of the struggle, the main participants will be academicians, journalists, and members of the media...

...The proposed budget is especially important not only because of its symbolic and precedent-breaking nature, but because on close inspection it is a budget with teeth...

...Nixon's invocation of compassion" and "equality" as arguments for cutting many Great Society programs...

...His series of radio messages on the budget and the state of the union is an attempt to maximize the intellectual impact of Administration proposals for localism and economy in government, and thereby to win round one of the contest...

...The President realizes that such opportunities occur rarely in political life and must be exploited promptly and skillfully if they are to succeed...

...Many proponents of fiscal discipline, although disappointed that the budget will show another deficit ($12.7 billion in FY 1974 as compared to $24.8 billion in FY 1973), and a whopping $18.9 billion increase (to $268.7 billion in FY 1974 from $249.8 billion this year), feel that the thrust of this budget is in a conservative direction...

...Congressional Democrats are virtually united against the cuts and, aided by a large segment of the media and a part of the congressional Republican bloc, will attack Administration cuts in starved" social welfare programs...

...Nixon's proposed lines is unthinkable...

...If a tax rise is to be averted and inflation checked, as the President has pledged, then fiscal discipline is needed...

...Nixon as merely a usurper, or pesky interloper in the nation's march toward egalitarianism, it is quite clear that the President regards his smashing electoral triumph, at least in large measure, as a vote by Americans against ever-expanding bureaucratic control over their lives and pocketbooks...

...chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has said he hopes his committee will reduce defense spending by as much as last year's $5 billion trimming...

...has predicted that if the Administration stands firm, enough Republicans and conservative Democrats will vote to sustain...

...It is at this point that the battle will be won or lost...

...They deserve programs that say yes to human needs by saying no to paternalism, social exploitation and waste...