Week of Reckoning

THE PRESIDENCY Week of Reckoning Briefcase-carrying relays of U.S. civilian and military leaders jogged into Augusta's National Golf Club last week to assist vacationing Dwight Eisenhower in nailing down the framework of a balanced budget for fiscal 1961 (beginning next July 1). The week's first wave from Washington, a Pentagon platoon led by Defense Secretary Neil McElroy, met with Ike for four hours in the National's trophy room, was firmly reminded that the armed forces must accommodate themselves to a fairly level rate of spending. Emerging from the key session: a decision to keep defense spending at about $41 billion (TIME, Nov. 9).

After the meeting, McElroy told newsmen that the Air Force and Navy would each be cut by 5,000 men next year. Almost casually, he raised the NATO-jarring prospect of eventual reduction of the U.S.'s 650,000-man forces overseas. "It is possible over a period of time that other NATO countries will increase their contributions of strength, and that they may come to the conclusion that it might be to their own advantage that we deploy forces elsewhere." But such a decision, McElroy indicated happily, would fall in some future budget maker's lap. On his return to Washington, he announced another economy: the second nuclear carrier (forced on the Navy by Congress) would be conventionally powered at a saving of $100 million.

Early next morning, Ike met for more than an hour with Civilian Space Boss T. Keith Glennan, who bid for a big increase over the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's present $500,575,000 budget. Ike gave no sign of his response. No sooner had Glennan left than the President posted an order to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, summoning them to an 8:30 a.m. meeting next day. Then, heeding a forecast of afternoon showers, Ike cut short morning paper work, laced on his golf shoes and headed off for the first tee.

Strategy, rather than dollars and cents, was the Commander in Chief's concern during the 2½-hour meeting with the military leaders. (Even as he prepared to confer with the President, Army Chief of Staff General Lyman L. Lemnitzer, in a speech read for him in Manhattan, opposed as "folly" sharp cutbacks in conventional forces.) Unlike last year, the military men were not asked to sign a public statement supporting the 1961 defense budget.

Close on the heels of the Joint Chiefs were Budget Director Maurice Stans and Presidential Aide Robert Merriam, who reviewed nonmilitary spending with Ike. Stans also brought bad news: the hopeful forecast of $100 million surplus in fiscal 1960 would likely become a deficit because of the steel strike. "The odds are swinging against a balanced budget this year," said Stans, explaining that strike losses would reappear next year as profits taxable during fiscal 1961. U.S. spending, said he, would be about $81 billion next year—up at least $2 billion over fiscal 1960. Hopefully, receipts would be up enough to leave a surplus of $1 billion as Ike's going-away present.