Published January 1967 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
From the Office of United States Senator Robert C. Byrd Room 342, Old Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. Volume VII - Number 1 January 6, 1967 Byrd's Eye View A Public Service Column by Senator Robert C. Byrd TAXES FOR 1967 The old saying, "Only two things in life are certain, death and taxes, should not mistakenly be translated in 1967 to mean higher taxes. Nor should a general climate of pressure for increased taxes be allowed to form, unchallenged, in over-reaction to fluctuations in the U. S. economy. For months a running tide of advice has surged forth from various quarters of the Nation, touting the advisability of an immediate tax increase. Increases in corporate business taxes have been urged. Dire consequences have been predicted if personal income tax scales were• not revised upward, effective for 1966, or beginning in the year 1967. Some theorists have justified urging a general income tax increase as a basis for directly returning a percentage of Federal income to state and local governments, to provide additional financing. Some have urged an increase to act as a brake on the so called run-a-way national economy, as the surest guarantee against inflation. Some have said financing the escalating cost of the undeclared war in Viet Nam demands it. Others have said the national: commitment to long-range welfare programs, basic components of the Great Society, demands higher taxation. In late 1965, and throughout 1966, such statements regularly have been issued, often accompanied by dire predictions of heavy economic losses if positive steps toward general tax increases were not taken. As a counter-balance, other economists, supported by cool-headed financiers and practical businessmen, have counseled caution, pointing out that excessive pressure on business through a tax increase might cause an unhealthy leveling of growth. Thus, despite a mounting clamor for higher taxes, the judgment of more restrained heads prevailed; and, significantly, the year 1966 came and departed with the Nation's Gross National Product (total output of goods and services)increasing, with the rate of employment up, and without an economic crash. Interestingly, voices now can be heard chorusing that it is too late for the Federal government to enact a tax increase in 1967 since such action was not administered a: a check to inflationary pressures many months earlier. It is perhaps difficult for the general public to wend its way through the complicated pro's and cons of technical discourses on economic checks and balances. However, observant citizens are not likely to feel the Nation's economy is ailing greatly when they note personal incomes across the U. S. have continued to advance throughout the year 1966 although the exact opposite was predicted by pessimists. The most recent summary on personal incomes indicated the national gain to be about eight percent for the year, with West Virginia leading the Mid-South States in chalking up a gain of almost six percent. Based on this one powerful indicator alone (and there are many others equally persuasive, cuts in non-essential Federal spending wou1d certainly appear first to be in order before any Congressional action to boost taxes can be justified. It is hard to believe a strong case of damage to the American economy can be made when the general citizenry is continuing to profit comfortab1y. At the present time, one might justifiably retort, when a tax increase is urged, ''Why rock the economic boat?". -30-