A Penny Saved

The President's two messages on the State of the Economy last week attempted to outline the middle part of his Trinity: Peace, Prosperity, and Progress. With cheery estimates from the Bureau of the Budget and the Department of the Treasury, Mr. Eisenhower predicted a $4.2 billion surplus--one largely dependent upon $1 billion in increased taxation and continued economic advance.

The message only superficially answered two disturbing questions. A reduction in the national debt, made possible by the surplus, would ease credit and expand national production--thus attempting to counter questions about the desirability of a surplus. On the issue of continuing prosperity, the President cited a series of figures showing that economic progress would continue after the nomination of Mr. Nixon for the Presidency. With these two rather vague underpinnings, Mr. Eisenhower proudly proclaimed that Prosperity would continue.

With the other parts of the Trinity, Peace and Progress, the budget message failed to advance any constructve ideas. Instead of strengthening American military power in the face of the "missile gap," the President shortsightedly favored a cut in military expenditures, moving back even more the hope of "balanced" forces capable to fight all types of wars. Instead of proposing to use the budget surplus for school or highway construction, debt reduction must come first.

Vague promises about economic welfare cannot substitute for an imaginative use of a budget surplus. The President has given Congress powerful economic ammunition; evidently he does not propose any action.