[Released June 20, 1968. Dated June 19, 1968]
Dear Mr. Speaker:
The House of Representatives will vote tomorrow on a measure of overriding importance to the health and strength of the national economy--the anti-inflation tax bill.
I have urged the Congress for nearly two years to enact this essential legislation. Now the hour is here and the time has come to help America sustain the unparalleled record of unbroken prosperity of the past eighty-eight months.
We dare not lose this opportunity to act. I call upon the House to meet its responsibilities and to pass this crucial measure.
The tax bill has been coupled with a $6 billion expenditure reduction. The need for the tax increase is so imperative and so essential to the national interest that I have previously stated that I would accept this package. I reaffirm that position.
Passage of the tax bill will not only strengthen the economy, it will help the poor children of America. Last year the Congress placed a ceiling on the number of poor children who could receive Federal welfare payments. The tax measure before the Congress contains a provision to defer this welfare "freeze". It will permit almost a half million poor children and their parents to receive the money they need to live with human dignity and hope. If the tax bill is not enacted, the freeze will continue, and tens of thousands of children will be denied the assistance they need for the basic essentials of life--food, clothing, and shelter. This will be a cruel and bitter disappointment to the poor children who so desperately need help.
I ask every Member concerned with bettering humanity to take this into consideration when they vote tomorrow. We must not strip from the arms of the poor children of America the life-line of sustenance they so urgently require.
So I urge the House to put delay behind it and to vote this measure into law.
Sincerely,
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
[Honorable John W. McCormack, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.]
Note: The Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968 was approved by the President on June 28, 1968 (see Item 343).
Lyndon B. Johnson, Letter to the Speaker of the House Urging Passage of the Tax Bill. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237027