THE ASCENT OF TED KENNEDY

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The overall Johnson budget for the fiscal year beginning July1 will total about $192 billion, up $7.6 billion over the current year. This presumes a halving of the income tax surcharge to 5%, a proposal that Richard Nixon is understood to have accepted, if somewhat reluctantly. This would allow for funding urban programs at roughly their current levels—again dissatisfying to both liberals and conservatives. It would, however, permit an increase in the military budget of $4.9 billion (to $78.5 billion), which is less than the service chiefs and their partisans on Capitol Hill want. House Armed Services Chairman Mendel Rivers insists that defense spending will have to go up by still another few billion. On the first day of the new Congress, he introduced a $3.8 billion bill that in effect would begin construction of a new Navy. The amount is nearly triple the funds available for shipbuilding this year.

Large Promises

The Senate must still consider—and will probably approve—the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But foreign aid and trade agreements may lead to sulfurous squabbles. The aid program seems destined to be squeezed down still further, and protectionists will again be seeking assistance for some domestic industries. There is also a resolution pending in the Senate that would demand congressional approval before the President commits U.S. forces overseas. On the troop issue, Kennedy reflects an executive rather than a legislative viewpoint, observing that such infringements on presidential powers get into "dangerous waters." But he would like to see the Senate at least express itself more freely on foreign affairs.

On most other predictable questions, Kennedy can be expected generally to defend the established liberal viewpoint. His specific ideas remain for the moment as uncertain as Nixon's. Nevertheless, Ted Kennedy has made large promises that go beyond the technical confines of his new post. He has pledged to promote an independent Democratic program. He vows that the Senate "must be made responsive to the demand of the people for institutions that are more relevant." How close he comes to fulfilling these self-imposed demands will be an absorbing subject not only for his fellow legislators and the new President, but above all for millions of Americans who are fascinated by the indomitable Kennedy legend and its latest inheritor.