A Mirror of Our Crisis

Much of the federal budget presented to Congress last January is already outdated. Expenditures for defense will considerably exceed the amount originally provided, while budgeted civilian outlays, as well as appropriation requests to support future expansion of civilian programs, will be cut back. These changes, however, do not affect the basic tendencies and dilemmas reflected in the budget. It seeks to finance the pursuit of international policies which, because of the growing military and technological prowess of adversaries, now exact (and will continue to exact long after the war in Vietnam has been settled) a large, possibly expanding share of national resources. At the same time, the budget seeks to fund programs dealing with deepening crises at home. Yet the fiscal system on which it draws has manifestly become too weak to sustain the financial demands made upon it.

It has become an accepted truism that international objectives conflict with domestic ones, and to tra...