Page "Warren G. Harding" Paragraph 52

Considered one of his greatest domestic and enduring achievements, President Harding signed Budget and Accounting Act of 1921.

Harding requested and obtained from the Congress authorization for the country's first formal budgeting process via the establishing of the Bureau of the Budget.

The law created the presidential budget director who was directly responsible to the President, rather than the Secretary of Treasury.

The law also stipulated that the President must submit a budget annually to the U. S. Congress.

Subsequent Presidents each year have had to submit a budget to Congress.

The General Accounting Office was created to assure oversight in the federal budget expenditures.

Harding appointed Charles Dawes, known for being an effective financier, as the first director of the Bureau of the Budget.

Dawes reduced government spending by $ 1. 5 billion his first year as director, a 25 % reduction, along with another 25 % reduction the following year.

In effect, the Government budget was nearly cut in ½ in just two years.

Harding believed the federal government should be fiscally managed similar to the private sector having campaigned " Less government in business and more business in government.

" " Harding was true to his word, carrying on budget cuts that had begun under a debilitated Woodrow Wilson.

Federal spending declined from $ 6. 3 billion in 1920 to $ 5 billion in 1921 and $ 3. 3 billion in 1922.

Tax rates, meanwhile, were slashed — for every income group.

And over the course of the 1920s, the national debt was reduced by one third.

" On August 9, 1921, President Harding signed legislation known as the " Sweet Bill ", which established the Veterans Bureau as a new agency.

After World War I, 300, 000 wounded veterans were in need of hospitalization, medical care, and job training.

In order to handle the needs of these veterans, the new Veterans Bureau incorporated the War Risk Insurance Bureau, the Brig.

Gen. Charles E. Sawyer's Federal Hospitalization Bureau, along with three other bureaus that dealt with veteran affairs.

Harding regrettably appointed Colonel Charles R. Forbes, albeit a decorated war veteran, as the Veteran Bureau's first director ( see scandal below ), a position which reported directly to the President.

The Veterans Bureau later was incorporated into the Veterans Administration and ultimately the Department of Veterans Affairs.