Looking back on last spring's great cut-that-budget fracas, an economy-minded member of Congress might well wonder whether it was just a dream. Despite all the battle cries that rang out on Capitol Hill, despite all the warlike swings of economy axes, that same federal budget now looms a cool billion bigger than President Eisenhower's year-ago estimate of $71.8 billion.
Last week, before submitting his new 1959 budget, the President asked Congress for an extra $1.3 billion to spend in fiscal 1958 for speeding up ballistic-missile and missile-detection programs, dispersing Strategic Air Command bases. This new request, which Congress is sure to grant...