Meany Urges Cut In Taxes to Spur Troubled Economy

AFL-CIO President George Meany called yesterday for a $30-billion tax cut, saying be $20-billion program gaining ground in Congress will not be enough to turn the economy around.

He said a month ago that a $22-billion tax cut "looked like a pretty good tax program, but the size of the problem and the enormity of our dilemma have increased since them."

At a news conference in Miami, Fla., Meany reiterated his prediction of a week ago that the unemployment rate will reach 10 per cent by July and said this is inevitable no matter what action Congress taken.

The United States is "getting into the vicious cycle we had during the days of the Great Depression," he said. Workers are beginning to exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits and will soon be unable to make consumer purchases, he added.

"When that happens, unemployment is going to cause more unemployment," he said.