Harry S Truman on Budget & Economy

Pay-as-you-go for a balanced budget

"We believe in economy, and a balanced budget. Therefore, a tax levy should be made to meet the increasing costs of essential security. And the sooner we face up to the need for such a tax, the sooner we will avoid piling up a federal debt that might become unmanageable."

GOP trickle-down mostly helps Wall Street & big business

"The Republican policy is to let the big fellow get the big incomes, and let a little of it trickle down off the table like the crumbs fell to Lazarus."

We need lower prices, higher wages, and more electricity

• We are suffering from excessively high prices.
• Our production is still not large enough to satisfy our demands.
• Our minimum wages are far too low.
• Our farmers still face an uncertain future. And too many of them lack the benefits of our modern civilization.
• We are acutely short of electric power, although the means for developing such power are abundant.
• Five million families are still living in slums and firetraps.
• Our health is far behind the progress of medical science. Proper medical care is so expensive that it is out of the reach of the great majority of our citizens.
• Our democratic ideals are often thwarted by prejudice and intolerance.

Economic policy to avoid inflationary wage & price increases

1. The promotion of greater harmony between labor and management. It is up to industry not only to hold the line on existing prices, but to make reductions whenever profits justify such action. It is up to labor to refrain from pressing for unjustified wage increases that will force increases in the price level.
2. Restriction of monopoly and unfair business practices; assistance to small business; and the promotion of the free competitive system of private enterprise.
3. Continuation of an aggressive program of home construction.
4. The balancing of the budget in the next fiscal year and the achieving of a substantial surplus to be applied to the reduction of the public debt.
5. Protection of a fair level of return to farmers in post-war agriculture.