LETTERS: FEDERAL SURPLUS IS ONLY SELF-DELUSION

To the editor:

Now that the impeachment affair has been beaten to death, the latest flimflam is what to do with the federal surplus. What surplus? All of the so-called surplus is money that belongs to the Social Security Trust Fund. So it will be with the so-called surpluses for years to come. However, never let it be said that our national leaders, Republican and Democrat alike, can face an issue forthrightly and honestly and deal with it commensurately.

Now that the electorate has been awakened somewhat to the charade about the phony surplus, the Johnny-come-lately high-profile voices are joining the chorus decrying several decades of smoke and mirrors regarding the fiction of the federal budget deficit. Is it too much to hope for that we may stop this self-delusion before our democratic republic goes down the tubes?

GILBERT DEGENHARDT

Cape Girardeau