The President's News Conference

GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES

THE PRESIDENT. I have a question on the matter of expenditures next year which is rather apropos because of the Cabinet meeting this morning. That meeting was largely devoted to a discussion of the financial situation of the Government as the result of appropriations made by Congress during this last session. Budget estimates for the fiscal year beginning July 1 this year show an increase of $209 million--I will give you that accurately--over the actual expenditures of the last fiscal year. The largest part of that is for the increased building programs--rivers and harbors, public works, Boulder Dam, and veterans' relief.

There has been a good deal of confusion in this discussion of the expenditures during this year because people use entirely different bases of estimates. Some of them include the authorizations for public works, buildings, and one thing or another, all of which would be extended over a long term of years, and only some minor portion of it falls on any one budget year. And then there are other comparisons made which include the Post Office expenditures. It has been the method ever since the budget was set up to include in comparative expenditures only' the Post Office deficit, because if we include the expenditures we have all the variations brought in through the variable operation of the Post Office. So that on that basis, including the Post Office deficit, the total budget estimates of expenditures for this year are $4,203,254,457, as compared with the actual expenditures of the last fiscal year of $3,994,152,487, or an increase of $209,101,970, being an increase of about 5 percent.

The discussion today was directed to the measures which could be adopted to further reduce the expenditures so that we may be able to meet any decrease in revenues which may arise from the slack times. All the Cabinet members and the heads of the independent establishments have undertaken to make a review and searching survey of all of the agencies of the Government to see what economies we can now impose, during this fiscal year, and not interfere with the employment program. I am confident that we can make a very large cut in this 209 million of increase so as to protect us against a fall in revenues.

COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS

I have a question as to whether I have as yet selected the Commandant of the Marine Corps. That has not been done and probably will not be done for 2 or 3 weeks.

APPOINTMENTS

The Tariff Commission and the Power Commission are in the same situation, that is, they are in a like situation with each other. In the selection of commissions which by law are required to be mixed in political color and, at the same time, either directly by law or implication must be regional and which must represent to some degree the different groups of thought and interest in the country--is a picture puzzle that requires more than 10 or 15 days to work out, and I expect to be a couple of weeks more on them. It may be that I can find part of the Power Commission before the Senate adjourns, but I am not at all sure that that can be done. In any event nothing is going to be damaged if they are not appointed and confirmed before this session ends. The Tariff Commission can be made interim appointments. The Power Commission is a little uncertain in the wording in the act as to whether they can be interim appointments. However, if they are not appointed, the three Cabinet officers could stay comfortably up to next December.