Long-Term Tax Relief

* Regarding your allegation of presidential opportunism in the national debate over the economy (editorial, April 2): People don’t listen to the president say that perhaps we should be concerned about the nation’s economic health and decide not to buy a refrigerator or a car or whatever they may be in the market for. They examine their own financial status and proceed or not by what they see there. The economic numbers that are eventually reported are the aggregate of those millions of decisions.

Instead of criticizing and even blaming President Bush for being honest about an economy that has been deteriorating over the last year, you should be encouraging the Congress to enact both the short-term fix of a $60-billion rebate now, with some version of the president’s long-term tax plan. If the two plans are not tied together and the $60-billion immediate tax cut is passed now, the Democrats in the House and Senate will have no incentive to go any further in enacting the long-term tax relief that the nation so desperately needs.

WEBSTER WILLIAMS

La Crescenta

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* Thank you, John Balzar, for correctly identifying President Bush as a Trojan horse (Commentary, April 1). He “won” the election only because he ran as a moderate and because he was able to keep the right wing of his party muzzled. It was a bigger lie than anything former President Clinton ever concocted. Our environment will pay for the voters’ stupidity.

KIM NICHOLAS

Santa Monica