Why Can’t Our Debts Be Forgiven?

It appears that President Clinton has no qualms about writing off billions of dollars of debt that is owed us from foreign governments [“Clinton Offers to Expand Plan to Forgive Poor Nations’ Debts,” Sept. 30]. Yet when it comes to giving us taxpayers a break spread out over 10 years, education, Medicare and Social Security are in peril.

Perhaps the president has forgotten that we taxpayers also need money for basic human necessities such as food, medical care, education and housing, which are paid out of our own pockets.

When we taxpayers owe the U.S. government, we receive menacing letters from the IRS threatening to confiscate or impose a levy on resources needed for our basic human necessities--i.e., turning us into homeless persons or, worse yet, welfare recipients, if we do not pay.

The reason our taxes are so high and that we have a deficit is because government spends too much unnecessarily and is continually giving away our money. When the time comes for foreign nations to repay the debt they owe, Mr. Clinton can afford to be magnanimous--after all, it’s not his money.

I wonder how long a bank or private corporation would be in business if its financial affairs were conducted in this manner.

Perhaps when my next tax payment is due, instead of sending a check I’ll enclose a copy of your article and call us “even.”

ERIC E. DRESSER

Burbank