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scene one, take 1 to 21 12. Matters he's we present at this time an informal discussion with Senator George Smathers from the nation's capital. Now here is the first question some of this matters on this question of the removal of excise taxes. You've been working on that for some time.

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How far back does that go? When you 1st 1954 I made the motion to remove the tax on property as it was transported by freight barge and so on, and we had to fight pretty strongly against the administration and even against the strong forces of Lyndon Johnson when he was in the majority leader and against Bob Kerber, we succeeded in getting it taken off.

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In about 1956 I made a move to take off, reduce the tax on the transportation of passengers in airlines and on railroads and buses and things of that character. Once again, we had the combined opposition of that mighty array of senators then, and we were successful.

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So I'm delighted to see that these very regressive and restrictive taxes, which were put on for wartime benefits only if they have finally been now taken off our economy. I think they will result in much good to the economy. Well, specifically, how much good would you say that will do?

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Well, I think it'll do a lot of good Already. We've observed from just immediate reports from mercantile establishments and trade centers that business has picked up considerably. We were satisfied that course that some roughly 4.5 billions of dollars will be returned to consumers. In addition to that, it makes it much easier for the stores.

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They don't have to keep all this long a series of records which they previously had to keep. And we think all in all it's going to be a great boon to the economy. Some of the members felt that this exercise Oh, you might say it's coming later.

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That's that's coming up. Later talk Nick. We present at this time an informal discussion with Senator George Smathers from the nation's capital. Now here is the first question. All right, well, senators matters. You've been in this excise tax business for some time. When was the first time that you tried to get a removal of an excise tax, which you felt was unfair I think in there was 1950 for that.

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I made the motion to have the excise tax on the transportation of property taken off. It was a drag on the railroads. It was a drag on airlines was a drag on all kinds of transportation business. We finally got that taken off that same year, but we had to oppose the leadership of the Senate, which was then, of course, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Majority Leader and Bob Kerr and all the influences which they had to exert.

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So we figured we were very fortunate, and about a year later we made a motion to take off the tax on the transportation of persons, and this again ran into the opposition of these same people. But we succeeded in defeating them and actually upsetting the ruling of the Finance Committee.

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But it was demonstrated that there was a strong feeling in the Congress that the regressive excise taxes should be taken off because everybody knew they had been put on at the time of the war, for the purposes of keeping people to use these services. And now they had a very regressive effect.

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So how we have now moved, however, from those stages of 1954 55 56 into this most recent tax reduction excise tax reduction of some 4.5 billions of dollars this year. Now what's that going to do to the economy of the country? But we are satisfied is going to give a great stimulus to the economy.

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We don't really need to. Greater stimulus Our economy is moving along very well. But we have tried to insist that these people agree that they will pass along these excise tax cuts to the consumers. And it would mean if this is done that right away there will be 4.5 billions of dollars left in the hands of the consumers, which in turn they can spend further than that.

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Stores which have heretofore, and companies which have heretofore had to keep these rather burdensome regulations with respect to how much tax they had to turn over to the government. They were getting it from, of course, the consumer that no longer is burdensome on them. So we think all in all of this is a very healthy thing to do for the economy now, some felt that possibly we should have taken this money from the excise taxes and applied it to the national debt.

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How do you feel about that? Well, we have been had I used to think that sort of thing when I first came to the Congress. But actually it has been very well demonstrated that as you stimulate the economy and more people are at work and more people, jobs are available and more manufacturing is going on that even at the lower tax rates, income tax and corporation taxes, we can make more money and, uh, thereby.

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We can come near balance in the budget. For example, this year we're going to have the smallest amount of deficit that we have had in some 4.5 years, and it's going to be $2 billion less than we thought it was at the beginning of the year.

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Now we can attribute this very expensive mood, which the economy is in. We think directly to these tax cuts now, under these tax cuts go into effect, for instance, on autos and air conditioners, things like that. Well, the automobiles and air conditioners were taken off 3% of it retroactive to May 15th of this year.

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Then the second stage of the cut on automobiles will come in January of next year. It's dropped down to seven and four and two, and then, finally, we're going to keep 1% of tax on the automobiles for the purposes of highway beautification or whatever we decide.

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We need it for now. What about this tax we've always paid on telephone calls That's been that, fortunately, has been taken off that will come off in stages. That was attacks. I was very much interested in seeing go off, and that will come off some of it almost immediately in the rest of it in a very short time.

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What about the club taxes and things of that? So I'll tell you, Taxi, we're interested in in Florida the admissions tax. And that's going to come off the Gator Bowl that Jacksonville and the Orange Bowl at Miami and these other balls. Those taxes are coming off, and they're going to come off on December 31st, 1965 and then the bounds haven't come off just the next day.

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At January 1st 1966 Thank you very much. Senator George Smathers. I return you now to your station announcer. Well, now, Senator, on the question of jewelry and luggage and handbags and things of that sort is the law compulsory that the excise tax must be taken off and the benefits handed on to the purchaser?

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It's not compulsory. There's no way we can compel people to do it, of course. But we have assurances from all the this is a retail tax. We have insurance for most of the retail association, that that's what they expect to do, and that they will do we actually have some of the congressman and some senators have put into the record for the benefit of anyone who might want them.

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Look at them the basic cost of these various items without the tax, and so that these people who want to purchase these types of items can go into the store and say that this is what it basically is supposed to cost without tax and insist that they get a savings by virtue of the tax.

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Well, now we had quite a discussion about the relative safety of automobiles. There was something in this bill and at least as it came out of the Senate that had to do with the installation of certain safety devices on automobiles. Yeah, that's still in the law.

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No, that was dropped out in the conference in the Senate. We put in a provision that 3% of this tax would be preserved. What would only be given, I should say, uhh to the manufacturer. If the manufacturer installed safety devices which were prescribed by the GSA, the General Services Administration, such as safety belts and plastic and pliable steering wheels and cushioned dashboards and things of that character.

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We thought this was a pretty good amendment. As a matter of fact, Senator Ribicoff of Connecticut was the chief sponsor of that amendment. But when we went to conference with the House, the House didn't think so much of it. And in those conferences between the House and Senate, they're only what, 23 senior members of each side sitting there.

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And it was the consensus of the men. They're in the conference that we'd better drop this out. Well, I'd like to pinpoint this overall excise tax cut on what it will mean to Florida. Where will Florida benefit the most. In what category? Let's say well, Florida will benefit enormously in several categories.

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We believe, of course. We have a lot of air conditioners down there. We have pleasant, warm weather. So the air can Attacks on air conditioners has been removed retroactively to May the 15th. Uhh! This is gonna be good. With the tax on telephones we do. A lot of were estate with, I think is higher average of telephone per house has any state in the union, and we're this telephone taxes coming off.

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So this is going to benefit the housewife, businessman, Everybody else in this particular respect, the admission taxes I've mentioned with respect to the athletic contest that all comes off, such as? We have horse racing, We have dog racing, We have the automobile racing, we have football games.

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We have as much of that is any probably any state in the union because we can do these things outside. We have more opportunity to do them, that's all. In addition to that, we have club dues have been not club dues, but the attacks on clubs, social clubs, civil clubs, this comes off.

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It also comes off. Interestingly, enough on the country clubs, and we have probably as many country clubs per capita as any state in the union. On top of that, we have a large number of nightclubs. We have to entertain the people who come down to visit us, and this tax has been a very high and somewhat restrictive 20% tax.

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That now means that supper the restaurants heretofore who avoided having music in these clubs because they had to pay the 20% nightclub tax can now have music in the regular restaurants are the musicians are going to benefit the nightclub businesses that she was going to benefit?

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And I think actually, the people who come down and visit us overall will benefit. On top of that, the hotel. There's been attacks with respect to certain operations and hotels. This is all off. All these federal excise taxes have come off now. Senator Smathers want to take a considerable length of time for the economy to adjust itself from a standpoint of the element of competition because it's hard for a consumer to know what is the basic cost price.

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It's almost impossible in some instances. What I think is when you find one person who is, and I'm sure in each category of business that's going to be one person who will pass the tax along when that person starts doing and he's going to begin to get the business.

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To the extent that finally, all his competitors are going to have to do the same thing. So I'm satisfied this tax will be passed along to the consumer. Thank you very much. Senator George Smathers. I return you from Washington to your station announcer.