THE PRESIDENT said:
"The administration is opposed to any entrenchment upon the statutory provisions for retirement of the public debt. The sinking fund now amounts to something over $430 million a year. Hitherto, we have allocated various funds, such as surplus or foreign debt payments, et cetera, to retirement over and above the statutory provisions which excess sums would, of course, be available for current use without trenchment upon the statutory requirements. It is sound government finance to hold to the sinking fund provisions of the public debt."
Note: The law in effect stipulated that 2½ percent of the liberty bonds and victory notes outstanding on July 1, 1920, plus interest, should be paid into a sinking fund for debt retirement. The sum for fiscal year 193 1 was to be $395 million. The President was rejecting proposals that these payments be suspended and the money used to prevent a Treasury deficit and allow a continuation of the tax reduction adopted in 1929.
Herbert Hoover, Statement About the Sinking Fund of the Public Debt. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/212487