Sale of sealskins.. Naval hospital fund receipts.. Miscellaneous unclassified receipts. Repayments of investments: Principal of loans made to foreign Governments... Liquidation of capital stock, Federal land banks. Total repayments of investments... Assessments and reimbursements: Salaries and expenses, national bank examiners... Reimbursement, cost of maintaining American Work done for individuals, corporations, et al.. 1,000,000! 7,700,000 36, 957,035 3, 000, 000 5, 115, 000 851, 572 325,000 5, 105, 702 30, 500,000 1,250,000 100,000 32, 850,000 1,900,000 788, 341 2,400,000 718,856 1, 236, 470 35, 408, 022 3,500,000 2, 000, 000 120,000 5,620,000 851, 572 1,825,000 5, 232, 984 30, 500,000 1,250,000 32, 850, 000 1,900,000 2,400,000 29, 309,000. 13 3,774, 947. 68 1, 946, 041. 18 871, 879. 80 6,592, 868. 66 1,024, 886. 81 932, 532.78 3, 385, 938.85 83,678, 223. 38 100, 000, 000. 00 954, 835.00 1,000,000.00 97,032. 33 185, 730, 090. 71 1,583, 037. 11 886, 777. 01 11, 154, 467.22 854, 737.95 5,050, 923. 07 19,529, 942. 36 The total estimates of appropriations for the fiscal year 1923 were prepared under Executive pressure, continually exerted for retrenchment wherever consistent with efficiency, and as originally presented to the Bureau of the Budget amounted to $3,923,919,970.48, which includes $586,532.950 payable from postal receipts. The final revision by the Bureau of the Budget, after impartial examination and consideration of the items, led to a further reduction of $122,806,310.95, which was accepted by the departments, leaving the estimates as finally determined upon and contained in the budget at $3,801,113,659.53. These figures include sinking fund, other reductions of the public debt, interest on the debt, and Postal Service payable from postal revenue. The estimates of appropriations as contained in the budget for the fiscal year 1923 are exhibited in detail, by departments, as follows: Concurrently with the establishment of the Bureau of the Budget the President announced his determination to assume his full responsibility as the head of the governmental business organization, and directed the Director of the Bureau, in accordance with the provisions of the budget law, to immediately suggest to him such improvements in existing governmental business methods as could be legally inaugurated by him through Executive orders. Upon the submission to him of information revealing certain defects the President decided to use the Bureau of the Budget as his first agency for imposing the pressure of an Executive plan for the unified conduct of governmental routine business and for retrenchment in governmental expenditure where consistent with efficiency. Coincident with this also came his consideration of the principles, customs, and precedents which should accompany the creation by Executive order of appropriate machinery designed to create a situation in the affairs of the Government business corporation such as exists in every well-managed private corporation where the head can transmit with the minimum of obstruction and delay a unified plan of routine business to be carried out by his subordinates. The President then followed the only possible course by which, as in a private corporation, all those in authoritative relation to expenditures of Government could be impressed with an Executive plan, and on June 29, 1921, called them en masse for instruction. At this meeting, attended by the Cabinet and some 500 department heads, heads of establishments, and bureau chiefs, he outlined his position, and under his instructions and in his presence the Director of the Budget explained the methods to be followed in carrying out his purpose. As a result of this meeting at the end of 30 days a reduction in expenditures for the present fiscal year (1922) was promised the Executive by the business organization in the amount of $112,512,628.32. A part of this sum was expected to be realized by actual economies and part by the deferring of expenditures to subsequent years. In this connection it should be stated that there will never be expended during a fiscal year all of the moneys appropriated for that year. A limited percentage is expended during subsequent years and a much smaller percentage is never expended, but is subsequently covered into the Treasury or reappropriated for similar or new purposes. As a result of the Executive pressure upon the departments this percentage has been largely increased, as will be apparent from the amounts here stated. On August 4, 1921, the Secretary of the Treasury stated to the Committee on Ways and Means that "according to the latest advices received from the spending departments and after taking into account all estimated reductions in expenditure reported to date the Treasury estimates that the total expenditure for the fiscal year 1922 for which provision should be made out of the current revenues of the Government will be about $4,550,000,000. This in itself would mean a substantial reduction in current revenues and expenditures below the fiscal year 1921." At the time that this statement was made by the Secretary of the Treasury the results of the imposition of Executive pressure upon the spending departments, inaugurated at the meeting called by the President of the body of the business organization of Government, had not been fully developed. On August 10, 1921, after a conference, announcement was made through the Secretary of the Treasury that the administration, in cooperation with the Committee on Ways and Means, had determined to reduce the ordinary expenditures of the Government for the fiscal year 1922 by at least $350,000,000 below the revised estimates presented by the Treasury on August 4, to wit, about $235,000,000 in addition to the $112,512,628.32 above mentioned. It was also announced that the Treasury would provide for two items of estimated public debt expenditure for the fiscal year 1922 out of other public debt receipts during the year to the extent of $170,000,000. Thus the expected aggregate reduction in expenditure for the fiscal year on the above basis was announced as $520,000,000, leaving the estimated total expenditure for the fiscal year 1922 as of date August 10, 1921, about $4,034,000,000. It will be noted from the foregoing statements that the present estimated expenditures for 1922, including sinking fund, are $3,967,922,366, thus indicating that the $520,000,000 reduction in ordinary expenditures determined upon August 10 will be exceeded by the sum of $62,000,000, making the total reduction $582,000,000. As compared with the actual total expenditures for 1921 of $5,538,040,689.30, the total expenditures for the Government for the present fiscal year 1922 of $3,967,922,366 involve a net reduction from all causes of $1,570,118,323.30. Furthermore, continued Executive pressure, affecting also the estimates for 1923, enables the budget for that fiscal year to be based upon an estimated total expenditure of $3,505,754,727, which is a still further reduction of $462,167,639 under the estimated expenditures for 1922. The attitude and determination of the President of the United States in relation to the use of the Budget Bureau as an agency for the imposition of his policy for the reduction of governmental expenditures not only as regards the expenditures for the fiscal year 1923 but for the present fiscal year 1922 is most important. If he had not taken this position and action, the expenditures for 1922 and the budget herewith presented for 1923 would have been far different as regards the majority of their items. For the first time in the history of our country a national budget has been prepared based on estimates from the spending departments acting under a strong and continued Executive pressure for economy and efficiency. THE BUDGET PRESENTED FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1923 IS BASED UPON THE AMOUNT OF CASH WHICH MUST ACTUALLY BE WITHDRAWN FROM THE TREASURY DURING THAT FISCAL YEAR. In presenting the budget of the United States for the fiscal year 1923, covering the sum of $3,505,754,727, in compliance with the requirements of the budget act, the Director of the Budget has prepared it upon the basis of the amount of cash which must actually be withdrawn from the Treasury during the fiscal year 1923. The method of appropriation of money heretofore followed has resulted in a condition of things under which it is almost impossible for either the Executive, Congress, or the Secretary of the Treasury to have before them a true picture of the fiscal condition of the Government at any particular time. Although Congress has by stringent penal law prohibited the creation of deficiencies and clearly indicated that its annual appropriations were intended to limit the amount to be expended for such period, yet millions of dollars have been annually spent by the departments above the estimates submitted at the beginning of the fiscal year, and in recent years, due to the great sums appropriated in connection with the war, hundreds of millions of dollars have been so expended by the departments, a course made possible by deficiency and supplemental appropriations, the existence of revolving funds, and unexpended balances. |