FEDERAL FUNDING ON CHOPPING BLOCK

As reported last week, proposed federal budget cuts will have a significant impact on Missouri. Cuts under serious consideration already amount to $111 million, and additional reductions are expected as debate continues over the financing of scores of federal programs.

Programs affecting Missouri and the amount of cuts the state likely will feel include Community Development Block Grants ($6.9 million), Goals 2000 Program ($2.7 million), Youth Job Training ($4.9 million) and Summer Youth Program ($13.9 million), and these are just the beginning. Also, the much-publicized Amtrak service connecting St. Louis and Kansas City faces the chopping block as the government-run corporation says it can no longer afford to subsidize this route.

One fourth of the $29 billion in federal money coming into Missouri annually is defense spending, either in weapons procurement (McDonnell Douglas, Emerson Electric) or in spending at military bases such as Fort Leonard Wood.

No attempt will be made to discuss the wisdom of specific, individual cuts in federal spending. What is worth noting is that a serious and long-overdue effort is being made to redress a federal budget process that began careening out of control 20 years ago and has never really been reined in since.

The federal budget largess that currently flows into Missouri is the federal deficit writ small. Multiply it 50 times and then some, and it is easy to see why there are huge federal deficits facing the nation for years into the future. All states and all citizens will have to bear the burdens of spending cutbacks. But that cutbacks are essential can hardly be doubted. Amid the wailing about heartless budget cutting, federal lawmakers should recall that not only is this what Americans voted for last fall, but that this effort is vital if the country is to avoid leaving our grandchildren still higher mountains of debt. They should redouble their efforts and remain in this fight down the long road back to fiscal sanity.