Budget Woes

Your (Nov. 30) editorial “Fight for a Line-Item Veto” continues a tired out last refrain from the die-hard believers that all the nation’s economic problems stem from no line item veto. What pap. Look at California with its veto power; our bonds and economy have been slowly sinking into disrepute.

Ever since Ronald Reagan’s phony threat to veto every budget busting bill faded into the sunset, we have witnessed the fiscal rape of our country by the President and Congress. The people becoming more and more used to a national “free lunch” vis-a-vis our billions of dollars borrowing, have not really relished the idea of fighting back. In the meanwhile back at the ranch, homelessness grew, infrastructures crumbled, health care was falling apart and the numbers of hungry were growing as inner cities decayed and erupted.

What were the newspapers doing besides complaining and calling for the “veto?” They were devoting a greater percentage of space to sports and pacifying Johnny Six Pack who really was only interested in his pay check and the boob tube.

Does anyone ever remember any newspaper listing all the pork and fat in the multitude of the bills the Congress passed and President signed? The papers are more content to write about the heroes on the playing fields. If the papers would describe what they consider waste instead of beefing about it now, maybe the people would have seen and thought a little more about the excesses of the past Republican and Democratic control over this nation.

NORMAN E. MANN

San Diego