The Big Red Year

The U.S. slammed the books on fiscal 1959 (July 1 to June 30) last week, and the red ink splattered over a record peacetime deficit of $12.6 billion. Principal reason for the big red year: the now departed recession, which cut tax revenues by $6.2 billion, raised spending by $1.5 billion, for such antirecession programs as higher housing outlays and pump-priming public work projects. Other spending pressures: a $900 million post-Sputnik boost in defense, $1.4 billion turned over to the International Monetary Fund as of July 1 (but charged against the dying fiscal year), a $2.2 billion overbudget outlay for buying the bumper crops produced by the obsolete farm-subsidy program.

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