Prof. Sees Tax Cut Diluted in Congress

Seymour E. Harris, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy, has defended President Kennedy's proposal for a $12-billion tax reduction as "the best possible compromise" between conservative fears of excessive federal deficits and liberal pleas for heavy welfare expenditures.

However, Harris warned in a letter to the Washington Post that Congressional "nibbling" may make the program worthless. "The longer the tax cut is postponed," Harris said, "and the longer the period over which the reduction is spread, the less effective the policy will be."

If Congress cut expenditures to balance the budget after it reduced taxes, it would simply be deflating the economy to the same extent that it was stimulating it. "Nothing could be more foolish," he observed.

Harris suggested that a dilution of the tax cut program that made it incapable of reviving the economy would also discredit modern fiscal policy "with loss to the country."

However, he questioned the efficacy of spending programs--one of the chief elements of Kennedy's policy--because "it is difficult to get the right kind of spending programs, or proper timing."