LETTERS: NATIONAL WILL NECESSARY TO REALLY BALANCE THE BUDGET

To the Editor

Balancing our national budget is a principle with which no one disagrees. How to do it, However, is a matter of opinion. Considering past performance, doing it by a restrictive constitutional amendment will probably bring about the most fancy foot-work and administrative/legislative calisthenics we have ever seen to circumvent its limitations. It has not yet been accepted that recent past (and present) prosperity has been fueled by continuing deficits. Our society's appetite for things continues to exceed the willingness to pay the price.

The same old process continues. The electorate sends 535 legislators to Washington with marching orders to straighten things out but also to bring home the "goodies" (subsidies, grants, loans, tax and special advantages, corporate and individual welfare to various interests, from top to bottom). When the tickets are added up, there isn't enough money to go around. So, it's borrow and spend.

No amount of tax cuts, tax increases, economic magic or "voodoo" will bring about a balanced budget without the national will. (Is there a national will to live within our means with a full understanding of what that means? The answer is a resounding NO!) The simplistic message of current leadership is still that achieving the desired result is relatively painless.

With all of the various dynamics at work with the emergence of a global economy and society, we have not yet realistically envisioned or determined what kind of a society we must become. We are not ready to have the self-discipline to accept what it takes to structure our society so that all segments may participate at a reasonable level. It will take no less than that to effectively address all our pressing problems.

Hardly anyone, presently on the scene or on the horizon, offers a creditable vision of the austerity necessary to accomplish a balanced budget. (Such leadership would probably not be electable). Pogo's observation still carries the day, "we have met the enemy, and he are us".

Gilbert Degenhardt

Cape Girardeau