The Nation - News from Jan. 18, 1987

President Reagan for the third consecutive week used his radio address to appeal for support of the budget he has submitted to Congress, exhorting lawmakers not to turn Pentagon spending into “a kind of crazy roller coaster.” Reagan, who has proposed spending $312 billion on defense in fiscal 1988, said that his Administration’s military buildup bolsters the United States at the Geneva arms control talks. In the Democratic response, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas urged the President to cooperate on a new trade policy, saying that in “three years, America has gone from . . . the world’s No. 1 creditor nation to the largest debtor.”