National Trends

Some Notes on the Budget Message

The first thing to hit the eye of reporters looking at the new budget— the thing, anyway, that found its way into all the headlines—was the President’s assertion that he planned to devote 64 per cent of federal spending in the coming fiscal year to “protection.” The President apparently felt that figure would convey the idea that his Administration is responding to the growing Soviet challenge with a sense of urgency and crisis. The reporters played along. Curiously, however, neither the President nor the reporters thought to mention that the portion allotted for “protection” in last year’s budget was also 64 per cent. The protection share was, as a matter of fact, a little bit bigger last year—63.79 per cent in the proposal for fiscal 1958, as against 63.73 per cent in the proposal for 1959.

LB

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L. Brent Bozell Jr.

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Some Notes on the Budget Message

The first thing to hit the eye of reporters looking at the new budget— the thing, anyway, that found its way into all the headlines—was the President’s assertion that he planned to devote 64 per cent of federal spending in the coming fiscal year to “protection.” The President apparently felt that figure would convey the idea that his Administration is responding to the growing Soviet challenge with a sense of urgency and crisis. The reporters played along. Curiously, however, neither the President nor the reporters thought to mention that the portion allotted for “protection” in last year’s budget was also 64 per cent. The protection share was, as a matter of fact, a little bit bigger last year—63.79 per cent in the proposal for fiscal 1958, as against 63.73 per cent in the proposal for 1959.