“The amount of deficits of the budget since 1928 increases after the budget 1935 to 1936 to 5 to 6 billion Reichsmark. This total deficit is already financed at the present time by short-term credits of the money market. It therefore reduces in advance the possibilities of utilization of the public market for the armament. The Reichsfinanzminister”—Minister of Finance—“correctly points out at the defense of the budget:
“ ‘As a permanent yearly deficit is an impossibility, as we cannot figure with security increased tax revenues in an amount balancing the deficit and any other previous debits, as on the other hand a balanced budget is the only secure basis for the impending great task of military policy,’ ”—I interpolate that evidently the Defendant Schacht knew about the impending great military task to be faced by Germany.—“ ‘for all these reasons we have to put in motion a fundamental and conscious budget policy, which solves the problem of armament financing by organic and planned reduction of other expenditures, not only from the point of receipt, but also from the point of expenditure, that is, by saving.’
“How urgent this question is, can be deduced from the following, that very many tasks have been undertaken by the State and Party”—it isn’t ever just the State; it is the State and the Party—“and are now in process, all of which are not covered by the budget, but from contributions and credits, which have to be raised by industry in addition to the regular taxes. The existence of various budgets side by side, which serve more or less public tasks, is the greatest impediment for gaining a clear view of the possibilities of financing the armaments. A large number of ministries and various branches of the Party have their own budgets, and for this reason have possibilities of incomes and expenses, though based on the sovereignty of finance of the State, but not subject to the control of the Finanzminister”—Minister of Finance—“and therefore also not subject to the control of the Cabinet. Just as in the sphere of politics the much too far-reaching delegation of legislative powers to individuals brought about various states within the State, exactly in the same way the condition of various branches of State and Party, working side by side and against each other, has a devastating effect on the possibility of finance. If, in this territory, concentration and unified control is not introduced very soon, the solution of the already impossible task of armament finance is endangered.
“We have the following tasks:
“(1) A deputy is entrusted with, I suppose, finding all sources and revenues, which have origin in contributions to the Federal Government, to the State and Party, and in profits of public and Party enterprises.
“(2) Furthermore experts entrusted by the Führer have to examine how these amounts were used and which of these amounts in the future can be withdrawn from their previous purpose.
“(3) The same experts have to examine the investments of all public and Party organizations, to what extent this property can be used for the purpose of armament financing.
“(4) The federal Ministry of Finances is to be entrusted to examine the possibilities of increased revenues by way of new taxes or the increasing of existing taxes.
“The up-to-date financing of armaments by the Reichsbank, under existing political conditions, was a necessity, and the political success proved the correctness of this action. The other possibilities of armament financing have to be started now under any circumstance. For this purpose all absolutely nonessential expenditures for other purposes must not take place, and the total financial strength of Germany, limited as it is, has to be concentrated for the one purpose of armament financing. Whether the problem of financing as outlined in this program succeeds remains to be seen, but without such concentration it will fail with absolute certainty.”
Being sort of a hand in finance myself, I can feel some sympathy with the Defendant Schacht as he was wrestling with these problems.