In all the tables of statistics in Washington, crowded with numbers so immense that no one could really grasp them, one figure was simple enough to be seen, smelled and tasted: each day the U.S. was spending $15 million more than it was taking in.
Unlike the ordinary citizen, the Government could not adjust its budget by moving to a cheaper neighborhood or finding a better job. But there were some alternatives :
It could cut spending, and get the unbalanced budget back into balance. This was tempting, but a cut in the really fleshy parts of the U.S. budget—the multibillion-dollar defense and foreign spending programs—might ultimately cost more than it saved.
It could raise taxes, which Harry Truman seems to want to do, while some of his advisers caution against it. A boost in taxes, they argue, would be bad in a political year like 1950; besides it might dangerously jiggle the prosperous but sensitive economy.
There was a third way—to keep on overspending, keep on going into debt, even in good times, as if debt didn’t matter. Nobody seriously tried to justify this as a lasting policy. But it was just what the U.S. was currently doing.
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