JFK Asks $2 Billion Works Chest: Calls It Silly
President Kennedy asked Congress yesterday for power to pump $2 billion into public works projects whenever a future recession threatens.</br></br>He said this standby power to act quickly, without further congressional action, is necessary if Government action is to be effective in helping head off a recession or providing rapid recovery from one.</br></br>Republican leaders in both houses promptly restated their flat opposition to giving the President such power. Con- servatives in Congress are opposed to launching more spending programs, and are especially sensitive to anything that looks as though Congress is handing over its control to the purse to the President.</br></br>"If the need develops to take action to ward off a depression, Congress could act with reasonable dispatch." said the Senate's GOP leader. Everett M. Dirksen (III b</br></br>House Republican leader Charles A. Ha lleck (Ind.) linked the standby public-works power with the President's request for tax-cutting power as ÛÏthe silliest idea I ever heard of." He said he would oppose both of these plans which the President advanced as anti recession measures.