House Plan for Balanced Budget

* Re “House Adopts GOP Plan to Balance Budget by 2002,” May 19:

The media and pundits said, “No politicians will have courage, tenacity and ability to come up with the balanced budget! They want to be reelected!”

One party went to retreat and came out, after relaxing; another party went to retreat and came out, after nonstop working, with the bona fide budget that will balance in 2002. And the budget gives more money to Medicare and welfare recipients!

Where is the praise that they deserve for their courage and hard work, sacrificing their own careers for the good of this country? I do praise them and thank them for working hard for us.

BETTY O’MEARA

Malibu

* Perhaps I missed something!

With all this discussion of federal budget reduction, all the elaborate schemes presented by both political parties, I have not been aware of any media concern for the massive Pentagon expenditures. No columns or editorials appear questioning this sacred cow.

Politicians are attacking the whole spectrum of government spending. No segment, including Medicare, seems exempt from cuts except the military/industrial complex.

Yet, I seen no criticism. No skepticism. No justification. With the collapse of the Communist threat, who are the powerful foreign enemies threatening our security?

As I said, I must be missing something.

RALPH BENNETT

Reseda

* Republican proposals to cut funding for the arts, public television, educational loans, aid to children, treatment for addicts, rehabilitation for criminals, disease control and Medicare, and their opposition to gun control, all make clear their vision for our country’s future.

It was described perfectly in 1651 by the English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes:

“No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

MARVIN A. GLUCK

Topanga

* Re “Proposed NASA Cuts Threaten 40,000 Jobs,” May 19:

Congress won’t give us the moon. Representatives also want to cut our exploration of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Also forget about asteroids, comets, stars, nebulae, galaxies, black holes, supernovas and the Big Bang. For good measure, eliminate satellite observations of Earth’s land, sea and atmosphere.

Then with the money we save from throwing 40,000 to 50,000 talented high-tech people out of work, we can fight for prayers in school. Note to the religious right: If God created the heavens and the Earth, shouldn’t we invest in observing and exploring his creation?

JONATHAN VOS POST

Altadena

* Concerning the May 16 Column Left by Robert Scheer, “Taking Food From Mouths of Babes,” his last paragraph can be considered the classic “big lie.” “This country got into its deep financial hole through the Reagan defense buildup and tax cuts of the ‘80s.”

Scheer “forgot” that every one of Reagan’s budgets was pronounced dead on arrival; Congress was totally controlled by liberal Democrats who managed to spend $1.58 for every dollar that came in; by the mid-1980s, revenues (dollars) had jumped from $500 billion to $900 billion a year. Oops! Well that can’t be right. To fit the view from Scheer’s morally superior plateau, the Government Accounting Office must be lying.

Moreover, black unemployment couldn’t have dropped from around 30% to less than 15%. The Census Bureau is lying. After all, it was the “Decade of Greed.” The IRS must be lying too, since it claims that charitable contributions rose from about $60 billion to $126 billion a year during the ‘80s.

JAMES TODHUNTER

Newport Beach