POLICIES & POLITICS
Policies & Politics PRESIDENT Truman's three major reports to Congress—on the State of the Union, the Budget, and the National Economy—added up to a jaunty, almost cocky appraisal of things as they...
...One fact seems quite unassailable: U. S. intervention now would rob us of the moral support of the budding republics of the East, which, while not Communist, view the outcome in China as the destruction of an evil feudalism...
...rural electrification and rural housing, 1.6 cents...
...These subsidies go to newspapers and magazines, the merchant marine, and airlines, all privately owned and operated for private profit...
...he left the task of charting the course for others or for another occasion...
...There are disturbing signs that the same performance may be repeated...
...Red totalitarianism is certainly no answer for the problems of China or Formosa or any other country, but it is always true that a desperate, hungry, exploited people will turn to any alternative to break clear of their chains...
...other social welfare and health services, 2.8 cents...
...Of course, a sizeable proportion of the Democrats are Tory-minded Southerners, but this is no valid reason for Administration forces to curl up and quit without a fight...
...That's why when Bob Taft sees things the way we think they ought to be seen, we are delighted to roll over and make room for him...
...The Truman Administration is still groping for an alternative to the intervention it has rejected, but it seems to us to be moving toward a program which is definitely the lesser of two evils in an evil situation we helped create...
...Conversely, the total of all Government activities which could be classified as welfare or social service programs comes to 18.8 cents, of which aid to the aged, the blind, and the otherwise handicapped comes to 3.6 cents...
...And in this corner are the top interventionists, like President Truman and Dean Acheson, who want to leave Chiang strictly alone in Formosa...
...The best evidence we can gather indicates that Chiang's greatest peril in holding Formosa is less a possible invasion by Red forces from the mainland and more the possibility that the inhabitants of Formosa will turn against him because his generals have made life miserable for the Formosans...
...and subsidies to business, 3.9 cents...
...This is especially true today in the Orient where a great revolutionary ferment has been in progress among the people...
...For the future the outlook seemed to him no less than dazzling—if we pursue "the right policies...
...In the 54 months since the end of World War II, India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, and now Indo-China have won complete or partial independence from their occidental masters...
...Taft, Hoover, Wherry, and MacArthur—active intervention in Formosa, with the possibility that we might soon be called upon to choose between all-out war and humiliating withdrawal...
...Thus, flushed with their great victory in November, 1948, they unrolled a far-sighted program in January, 1949, and then fell silent for 60 days thereafter...
...11.1 cents will be paid in inter-national security grants to foreign nations...
...We have no doubt that there is waste in the Federal establishment and that sound economies can be made without disturbing vital functions of the Government...
...It was months before some of the bills were even drafted...
...We shall be watching with great interest when the economy bloc goes into action...
...II In the more immediate realms of social services, housing, regional planning, rent control, civil rights, aid to education, and subsidies for agriculture, the President reaffirmed his Administration's familiar "Welfare State" position, and here, of course, Mr...
...He foresaw an annual output in excess of 300 billion dollars in five years, providing a gain in annual income equal to an average of $1,000 for every American family, and assuring jobs for 64,000,000 persons...
...a quadrupling of national production to the trillion-dollar level, which would triple the average family income, bringing it to $12,000...
...II Chiang was driven out of China partly by the Communists, backed by the Kremlin in Moscow, but more decisively by his failure to provide an honorable and hopeful alternative for the people of China...
...housing and slum clearance, 1 cent...
...13.2 cents will pay interest on the national debt, most of it incurred in the two World Wars...
...In the Senate it has a margin of 12—54 to 42—and in the House it has a majority of 93 —262 to 169...
...As James A. Wechsler brooded in the pro-Fair Deal New York Post recently, "Some Democratic strategists seem almost joyously reconciled to the approaching legislative stalemate on the theory that 'wait till next year' will be an irresistible slogan for the 1950 Congressional races...
...Unhappily the only effective thrust at this rotten regime came from the Communists...
...Any clear-cut evidence that the Democrats prefer to keep their legislative program for campaign purposes will swell the stay-at-home vote sufficiently to bring disaster to the Democrats in November...
...The 42 billion dollar budget, and its five billion dollar deficit, were blasted as "the bankrupting cost of the Welfare State" and as "laying the bricks on the socialist road to economic ruin...
...The Senator is homesick for Illinois, where he must stand for reelection this year...
...The total of these war and defense appropriations is 72.4 cents out of every dollar of Federal spending...
...To the extent that Mr...
...In China it was Chiang's corrupt government which barred the way to hope...
...The Lesser Risk THE CURRENT squabble over Formosa—it hardly merits a more dignified designation—has been a dizzy performance, any way you look at it...
...The Progressive is much less concerned with this ancient and obvious red-herring of the Republicans than it is over the intentions of the Democrats...
...Thus, in his economic message he spoke of "new devices for encouraging private financial institutions to furnish equity capital to small and medium-sized firms...
...But we're convinced that any genuine effort at economy must be made with the understanding that the budget finances a warfare state, not a welfare state...
...The same conditions prevail today in Formosa—the last Nationalist fortress 100 miles off the China coast...
...Analysis of the budget shows how weirdly inaccurate such charges are...
...purchase of housing mortgages, 2.3 cents...
...Robert A. Taft, who loudly cried "Socialism...
...Truman dwelt on the future and gloried in the miracle of American production, he was on relatively non-controversial ground...
...The Warfare State THE PRESIDENT'S 1950-1951 budget, second highest in the nation's peacetime history, drew howls of protest from the conservative press and politicians...
...Here are the leading non-interventionists, like Herbert Hoover and Robert Taft, clamoring for the United States to send aid or troops or both to Chiang Kai-shek in Formosa to stop the Communists...
...We're more than ever convinced that you can't stop Communism by handing over guns and bombs and money to corrupt, reactionary regimes solely because they are anti-Communist...
...Truman was content to cite the distant goals...
...The Democratic Party is solidly in control of Congress...
...14.3 cents will be disbursed in the form of veterans' benefits...
...Nearly three-quarters of the budget's 42 billions—72.4% to be exact—is earmarked for war, whether for past wars, the present cold war, or preparation for future wars...
...Policies & Politics PRESIDENT Truman's three major reports to Congress—on the State of the Union, the Budget, and the National Economy—added up to a jaunty, almost cocky appraisal of things as they are and a buoyantly hopeful promise of even better things to come...
...Resort to shadow-boxing could prove to be a campaign boomerang by disillusioning the independent, progressive-minded voters whose role is decisive in elections...
...Truman drew fire from the Republican opposition, led by his principal opponent, Ohio's Sen...
...In his State of the Union message he talked of "curbing monopoly and providing aids to independent business...
...There are risks, to be sure, in any-other course, but they seem to us vastly less dangerous than the Taft-Hoover-MacArthur proposal to defend Formosa for Chiang and invite the ill-will of all the rest of Asia...
...The campaign-conscious President was clearly bent on calming the fears of middle-of-the-road and middle income business men and establishing his party and himself as the true friends of the fair-minded, reasonable men in the business community...
...Envisioned in the broader concept is the hope, and by no means an idle one, that Red China may find it home needs and goals in direct con-flict with the needs and goals of Red Russian imperialism...
...aid to agriculture, 3.6 cents...
...Sen...
...Item-by-item breakdown of the recommended expenditures reveals that of every dollar of expenditure provided in the budget: • 31.9 cents will go directly for national defense...
...Chiang's Nationalist regime has had countless opportunities to put its house in order, but it just hasn't been interested...
...Truman thought he saw for the year 2,000 A.D...
...And when Harry Truman sees the light burning in our bedroom, we're happy to share our pillow with him...
...III We would risk disaster by following the course laid out for us by the Messrs...
...Right now it's Harry Truman...
...We of The Progressive are never quite sure whom we're going to find in our bed of a morning, because while we tend to stay put and sleep in the same place, the others have a habit of wandering around like sleep-walkers...
...The President was pleased that prices are stable, production up, unemployment down, and the prospects for peace better...
...Significantly, the last item is the largest but, of course, provokes the least outcry...
...1.9 cents are earmarked for atomic energy development...
...On both counts, however, there was nothing to indicate that the Administration had proceeded much beyond the phrase-making stage...
...Too often in the past they have been strong on verbal generalities in January but weak on specific actions come adjournment time...
...Peering into the deeper and more distant waves of the future, Mr...
...As we understand the Truman-Acheson mood of the moment, we would help strengthen the democratically-inclined nations of Asia* as we have of Europe, while recognizing but not supporting the results of Communist penetration which our wartime and postwar diplomacy helped make possible...
...Why...
...In this respect his reports to Congress provoked less political strife than is usually true in an election year...
...Scott Lucas, Illinois, Majority Leader, has predicted a short session and has declined to identify any "must" bills...
Vol. 14 • February 1950 • No. 2
