‘Those Evil Interests’

Tax and spend, tax and spend--that is the way Congress would go. But Reagan really knows better; if the Congress would only listen to him we could forget about the old people, the students and the babies. Let us get our priorities straight--it’s the military we have to be sure gets taken care of.

If the U.S. military industry were a national economy, it would be the 13th largest in the world. Ten giant military contractors account for one-third of all U.S. weapons contracts. But if we listen to Reagan, we can change that 13th place and move them up a notch or two. Military contractors receive higher profits for lower-risk work than comparable commercial business. Military contractors get to use $40 billion worth of government property free of charge--that means the taxpayers pay. But that isn’t really the same as taxing the taxpayers, is it? I mean what they don’t know won’t hurt them, right? After all we won’t be the ones to pay--it will be future generations.

Reagan need have no fear that he will be forgotten by history. He will go down as the first President to turn this country into a debtor nation. He will go down as the President who ran up a bigger deficit than all the other Administrations combined. He will go down as the President who had more people leave the government under a cloud of shame than any other Administration to date.

BOBBIE CORBETT

Garden Grove