The 80th Congress returned to Washington this week to face its fateful calendar.
Some of the big political issues for 1948 had already been raised; the main battle lines were drawn. For a while, it would be Harry Truman's prerogative to keep the Republican congressional majority on the defensive. In rapid succession, the President would deliver three messages: on the state of the union, on economic conditions, on the federal budget. But, aside from counseling the Congress against immediate tax reductions, he was expected to do little more than renew his pleas for a European Recovery Program and for compulsory anti-inflation...