LETTERS: PAYBACK FOR FOREIGN GIFTS

To the editor:

I have a Nov. 9 article from a major newspaper that states that the Democratic National Committee has received campaign donations of $450,000 from an Indonesian husband and wife, a donation from a Korean firm of $250,000 and a donation of $325,000 from a California businessman who claimed in court that he had no assets in the United States. The article states that the Democratic committee is returning the money, thereby implying that all is now OK.

My question is, why are foreigners donating money to a political party in the United States in the first place? Foreigners are smarter than most Americans when it comes to handling their money. They don't just throw their money away like we do. If they are willing to donate $1,025,000 (and this is probably only a small portion of what is actually donated by all the countries in the world), then they are absolutely positive they are going to be repaid tenfold. Is this why our president, our congressmen and our government department heads are always running around all over the world to so-called trade meetings?

After most of these meetings, it comes to light that yet another country has received a huge sum of the taxpayers' money, and this is at a time when they claim there are so many hungry people in the United States.

Could it be that these foreign giveaways are the payback for these political donations? It sure looks like it.

RAY UMBDENSTOCK

Cape Girardeau