In 1954 the deadline for filing your taxes was March 15th, not April 15th. The April deadline wouldn't come into effect until 1955. But even in 1954, President Eisenhower was alarmed that people of a certain massive income got away without "paying their fair share".

In this radio address, Eisenhower takes to task those who make a substantial amount of income, yet pay no tax on it, instead leaving the Middle-Class and those people who can ill-afford it the most to bear the burden.

It's interesting when you realize you're listening to a Republican President reciting the benefits of a fair tax system and the reason taxes exist was to accomplish what the private sector couldn't.

And almost sixty years later the conversation has shifted. And, judging by all I've heard, Dwight Eisenhower would be considered something of a Socialist Radical in today's climate.

Funny how things change.

Here is the complete radio address by President Eisenhower, broadcast on Tax Day (March 15th), 1954.

It's interesting that, as we talk about the age-old subject of Defense Spending, and phrases like "Military-Industrial Complex" chime in, you often wonder where all this amped up spending got started.

I think it's a safe bet to say our increased Military spending came as the direct result of the Cold War. However, sixty+ years later, it hasn't changed at all - even though the landscape of our superpowers has changed and the nature of military engagement has changed significantly since even the Vietnam War period. The spending has, if anything, increased dramatically.

On April 10, 1948 the question was asked as part of a weekend panel show which ran on CBS Radio called Cross Section: USA. The question for this week was "How Much Defense Does The USA Need Now?". Answering the question were representatives of the AF of L, The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce, The International Association of Machinists and The Grange. Without much doubt, and with no argument, the universal answer was "spend as much as is necessary". Certainly a reaction to the threat of the Cold War.

But you can't help but wonder that the blank check handed the Defense Department laid the groundwork for what President Eisenhower would call some twelve years later the "Military-Industrial Complex".

War, it was discovered, was good for the economy.

A significant day for a lot of reasons. First, it's Martin Luther King Day but it's also the 50th anniversary of the famous Eisenhower Farewell Address, or the "Military-Industrial Complex" address as it's come to be known.

Pres. Eisenhower: "A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be might, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. . . . American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. . . . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

Where one is a celebration of a life of peace, the other is an acknowledgment of a world in turmoil.

Still is.