TAXES: Relief in Sight

As the drive for tax reductions gathered momentum in Congress last week, the big question was: how about the individual income taxpayer? Up stepped Georgia’s greying Walter George, the Senate’s tax expert and Finance Committee chairman, with an answer. Said he: U.S. citizens might get an average cut of 15 to 18% in their 1946 income levies.

On the Republican side, Michigan’s Arthur H. Vandenberg joined in: “I think there should be a … degree of relief in personal taxes, not only in the confiscatory brackets at the top, but also in the mass brackets at the bottom. . . .”

From Harry Truman, who called for limited tax reductions in his message to Congress, came a note of caution. Said he: “We must reconcile ourselves to the fact that room for tax reductions at this time is limited. A total war effort cannot be liquidated overnight.” But from an election-conscious Congress, the President was likely to get more than he had called for.