The immediate fruit of economy and the retirement of the public debt is tax
reduction. The annual saving in interest between 1925 and 1929 is
$212,000,000. Without this no bill to relieve the taxpayers would be worth
proposing. The three measures already enacted leave our Government revenues
where they are not oppressive. Exemptions, have been increased until
115,000,000 people make but 2,500,000 individual taxable returns, so that
further reduction should be mainly for the purpose of removing
inequalities. The Secretary of the Treasury has recommended a measure which
would give us a much better balanced system of taxation and without
oppression produce sufficient revenue. It has my complete support.
Unforeseen contingencies requiring money are always arising. Our probable
surplus for June 30, 1929, is small. A slight depression in business would
greatly reduce our revenue because of our present method of taxation. The
people ought to take no selfish attitude of pressing for removing moderate
and fair taxes which might produce a deficit. We must keep our budget
balanced for each year. That is the corner stone of our national credit,
the trifling price we pay to command the lowest rate of interest of any
great power in the world. Any surplus can be applied to debt reduction, and
debt reduction is tax reduction. Under the present circumstances it would
be far better to leave the rates as they are than to enact a bill carrying
the peril of a deficit. This is not a problem to be approached in a narrow
or partisan spirit. All of those who participate in finding a reasonable
solution will be entitled to participate in any credit that accrues from it
without regard to party. The Congress has already demonstrated that tax
legislation can be removed from purely political consideration into the
realm of patriotic business principles.
Any bill for tax reduction should be written by those who are responsible
for raising, managing, and expending the finances of the Government. If
special interests, too often selfish, always uninformed of the national
needs as a whole, with hired agents using their proposed beneficiaries as
engines of propaganda, are permitted to influence the withdrawal of their
property from taxation, we shall have a law that is unbalanced and unjust,
bad for business, bad for the country, probably resulting in a deficit,
with disastrous financial Consequences. The Constitution has given the
Members of the Congress sole authority to decide what tax measures shall be
presented for approval. While welcoming information from any quarter, the
Congress should continue to exercise its own judgment in a matter so vital
and important to all the interests of the country as taxation.