Harris' Testimony Hits Administration Stand On OASI Benefits

The Eisenhower Administration is "niggardly" in its refusal to extend the bases and payments of the old age insurance program, Seymour E. Harris '20, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy, declared yesterday.

In a statement before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Aged, meeting in Boston, Harris criticized the present policy of the Administration toward old age benefits. The main question in dispute is whether Old Age and Survivors' Insurance should be exclusively financed on a pay-as-you-go basis or through an accumulation of large reserves.

Supports Pay-As-You-Go

The President has supported the latter program, leading to the abandonment of the pay-as-you-go plan, which Harris believes is the "appropriate policy."

Harris said that this practice of shifting the burden of old age support to the poor and to state and local governments should be discouraged. While the Administration is now planning increases in the payroll tax rate to accumulate a large reserve fund, he stated, there is some question whether the appropriate financing methods should not be to increase the "very low level" of benefits or to postpone rises in rates.