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Governor Hoegh said he favored research on blast shelters,
but hoped our active defense Would become so strong that enemy planes
could not bomb the cities.
The President said the corollary to Governor Hoegh's observation was: If we can keep enemy planes away from our cities, we can
keep them out of the United States altogether. He asked whether the
U. &. Government was expected to construct or help to construct a
shelter in every home. If we provide incentives to individual shelter construction, it must be done without hysteria, must be accepted
as routine. The President said there was a great temptation to say
we are strong enough to trust to advances in active defense and put
all our resources into improving active defense; but he was sympathetic to the FCDA problem.
Mr. Cutler then called on the Director of the Budget to
. begin the briefing on the "Costs and Economic Consequences” of the
, Gaither programs.
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Mr. Brundage said he felt the initial estimates of receipts
and expenditures should be reviewed, and had accordingly prepared certain charts.
The charts were displayed and explained by the Deputy Director of the Budget, Mr. Stans. The charts indicated that over a fiveyear period the United States could absorb the cost of the highest
priority measures recommended in the Gaither Report and come out with
@& surplus. But if the cost of shelters were added, the result would
pe a $19 billion deficit; and if the contingency items of the Gaither
Report were added on top of shelters, the deficit would be $36 billion
over five years.
ing taxes.
Mr. Brundage said the charts assumed continuance of exist-
The President said if good times continued indefinitely,
an increase in taxes might be considered, i.e., more "pay as you go”
in govermment spending.
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Mr. Scribner pointed out that the figures as to receipts on
the Budget charts had been furnished by the Treasury Department. The
forecast of receipts was based on the assumption that the economy
early in 1959 would be restored to its early 1957 levels. Otherwise,
receipts would decline. Mr. Scribner agreed that the United States
could take on the Gaither "highest value" measures without additional
taxes. He asked whether the Gaither measures were included in the
FY 1959 Defense budget. Mr. Cutler and Dr. Killian answered in the
negative.
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