Public option, within budget

Thanks for the Oct. 28 Opinion page dominated by the Howard Dean and Newt Gingrich articles on the health care issue. This reader agrees with the main point of each. Those positions:Dean -- We need the public option.

Gingrich -- Whatever we have must be paid for within budgeted revenue.

So this reader is for the public option but only if paid for up front.

Now for my rationale. In 1980 the public debt stood at about $800 billion accumulated over 200 years. That debt has increased about twelvefold to $11 trillion in just three decades. This led us into our current deep recession. The only way to achieve the main goal of both Dean and Gingrich is to have a constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget. This constitutes the main goal of this reader. If this goal is not achieved, regardless of health care, by the time our grandchildren become adults, our national economy will be bankrupt and our democracy will disintegrate into turmoil and violence.

As an aside, please let me add that the positives of all the above can be obtained only if our billionaires and multimillionaires are once again required to pay their fair share of taxes. They have not been so required for the past 30 years.

BILL D. BURLISON, Advance, Mo.