Nation: A Scratch in the Surface

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Above all else, President Johnson worked at projecting a cost-cutting, budget-minded, fiscally responsible picture. Three times in one week, he ordered department heads to review money requests for next year's budget, cut them to the bone. He demanded that Cabinet members weed out nonessential staffers. "In short," he said, "I want you to give as much attention to management as you do to your programs. . . I intend to disapprove any budget request for more personnel except where the facts leave me no choice."

Still, the budget that President Johnson will propose to Congress next month will come to between $101 billion and $103 billion, biggest in U.S. history. Of that amount, more than half will go into military spending. Thus the defense budget was plainly the best place to start chopping away. With that fact well in mind, Johnson told Defense Department civilian officials that they must "make the largest effort and achieve the biggest savings." No sooner said than done—or at least started. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara announced that operations would either be cut off or curtailed at 26 defense installations in 14 states (see map), eliminating 5,643 civilian jobs. Coupled with the shutdown of seven overseas bases (identities unspecified), the move would save an estimated $106 million a year.

This, of course, would be a tiny drop in the bucket. But the announcement served a shrewd purpose. A major aim of President Johnson's cost-cutting drive was to impress the cost-conscious Congress. But whereas a Congressman may be all for money-saving in the abstract, it is quite a different matter when the proposal is to save money from his own state or district. Thus, upon hearing of McNamara's plans, there were the predictable yelps from almost all the affected Congressmen. They were heard by the folks at home, but would hardly sway Secretary McNamara.

At Johnson's order, McNamara also announced plans to trim civilian employment by the Defense Department, both in the U.S. and abroad, by another 25,000 before July 1, 1965. And at week's end he made it plain that there was more coming. Said McNamara: "We have just scratched the surface."