Nation: OF WAR AND INFLATION

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But Nixon has shelved plans for linking social security payments to cost-of-living increases, which would cost perhaps $4 billion a year. He may settle for no more than a pilot program to start off his ghetto-industry tax-incentive scheme. Moynihan will get no action on his guaranteed annual income plan. George Romney, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, will get more funds to work on the technology of low-cost housing, but less for the Model Cities program. Health programs will probably concentrate on existing services. Even in the Justice Department, where a new, high-priority anticrime program is being fashioned, an effort is being made to hold down costs.

Elbow Room. While the inflation fight is necessary, it will obviously aggravate impatience with delays in domestic programs and with the war. The Democrats are losing no time in warning that Nixon's anti-inflationary efforts could also cause a spurt in unemployment. But the extremely low rate of joblessness (currently 3.3%) should give the Administration a bit of elbow room to fight inflation. The consequences of dodging the fight have already been serious enough. After three years of steady inflation, a family that had an income of $10,000 in 1965 would need $11,330 today just to stay in place.