Neuberger Says Budget Proposals Will Be Used Against Welfare

President Kennedy's budget proposals will be used as a weapon against government welfare activities, Sen. Maurine B. Neuberger (D-Ore.) warned last night. She said that conservative Congressmen would seek to justify welfare cutbacks on the basis of the President's desire to keep a close check on federal spending.

Sen. Neuberger told a Lowell House audience that "70 per cent of the budget goes for war." She explained that her estimate included veterans' payments, foreign aid, and the interest on the national debt, as well as strictly military outlays.

The remaining 30 per cent of the budget, the Senator continued, must cover all domestic welfare programs, such as road construction and farmers' subsidies. "That's not very much for a rich country like us," she said.

"The great shortcoming," however, is that "only a few cents" out of every dollar are spent for education. "Since I've been in Congress," Sen. Neuberger declared, "the only way we've been able to get any money for education is to call it defense." She was referring to the National Defense Education Act of 1958.

In a wide-ranging and informal talk, Sen. Neuberger called politics a continuation of her education. "It was just incomprehensible to me in my last campaign that disarmament wasn't a popular subject," she observed. "But, my land! you can get yourself called a Communist faster than anything by discussing it."

Sen. Neuberger called the filibuster a "ridiculous" institution that prevented the Senate from carrying on its business.

Last session, she said, she and other liberals merely staged a "prolonged debate" over the Telstar satellite.

Citing the voting records of Southern senators, Sen. Neuberger declared that "the biggest change in Congress will come when the South gets a two-party system." Until then, the Democrats will have a "Southern yoke" around their necks.

Subjects the Senator touched on included:

* The emotions of freshman senators. "They're like freshmen in college. They're scared."

* The significance of the extreme Right. "They're their own worst enemies. Their danger is that they cause loose talk about people being afraid of the federal government. People are the federal government."

* Canadian-U.S. relations. "Canada is realizing that their future lies with us."