Budget Blues

To the Editors:

Why all the fuss about the budget farce [April 26]? Congress has no legal obligation to pay attention to the budget it adopts. This is why we have a $1 trillion national debt that will waste nearly $100 billion this year just to pay the interest.

Frank C. Worbs

Vanport, Pa.

With an "almost messianic faith" in his budget, the President is becoming intransigent. On the other hand, if Congress is "simply unable to act decisively," its members shouldn't be approaching the electorate for a further vote of confidence. The President and Congress are only paying lip service to our economic woes. Neither truly acknowledges that we are hurting badly.

Jill M. Bradley

Laguna Niguel, Calif.

The rise in the power of political action committees (P.A.C.s) is alarming. The result is a breakdown of the democratic process in which rich minorities buy votes and elections with total disregard for the rest of America. Ironically, Congress continues to wonder why the public views it with contempt.

Douglas Larsen

St. Paul

Howard Baker seems the perfect Government representative. But when the cuts concern his pork-barrel projects, like the Clinch River breeder reactor, he is not asking as much of himself as he does of other Senators. Baker may be a shepherd in party matters, but he is a wolf when legislation threatens Tennessee.

Edward Lewis Pfau

Cincinnati

Disputed Islands

The Falklands controversy is one of sheer national vanity, having nothing to do with economic or social reality [April 26]. During the past 150 years, the absence of Argentine immigrants to the islands suggests that the average Argentine does not regard the Falklands as a climatic and economic paradise. No matter whom they belonged to originally, the islands are now thoroughly British. The solution is to let the islanders decide.

Courtney Fisher

Moretown, Vt.

After 149 years of patiently asking Britain to return the islands, we Argentines had no other choice.

Carlos I. Salgado

Buenos Aires

Having spent several months in Argentina and the Falkland Islands, I have had the opportunity to listen to the views of ordinary Argentines and Falkland Islanders. While the Argentines care passionately about the sovereignty of the Falklands, they don't want to live there. The Kelpers, on the other hand, have been on the islands for more than a century and care passionately about remaining under British rule. Recent British governments have been caught between the two sides. On the one hand they have respected the wishes of the islanders and, at the same time, have valued their traditional ties with Argentina.

Proposals acceptable to both sides could be drawn up and presented to the islanders in the form of a referendum. This would once and for all resolve the dispute and enable the islanders to continue their British way of life as well as enjoy the benefits of being officially linked to the mainland.

Hilary Bradt

Bourne End, England

Galtieri's Guilt

According to TIME [April 19], General Galtieri, the Argentine dictator, was not "directly identified" with the violent repression organized by the military government after the 1976 coup. From 1977, Galtieri was the supreme commander in one of the four military zones into which Argentina was divided. He enjoyed absolute authority in a region in which there were thousands of "disappearances."

Aryeh Neier

Americas Watch

New York City

Contradicting Hersh

Your article "Two of the President's Men" [April 26] states: "Hersh says that Laird was bypassed in the decision to bomb Cambodia." That is a complete falsehood because our combat forces respond only to directives from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Directives sent to our operating forces by the JCS involving combat action must be approved and initialed by the Secretary of Defense. The directives sent to our forces to bomb Cambodia were approved and initialed by Secretary Laird. This fact is well documented.

Thomas H. Moorer

Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)

Former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff

McLean, Va.

Presidential Trappings

I've been sizzling for years over the kind of taxpayer abuse described in "Trapped in the Imperial Presidency" [April 26]. From now on, any presidential candidate who wants my vote must pledge that after winning a rent-free stay at the White House and Camp David, he will never escalate the deficit by temporarily moving the White House.

Mark Ogden

Sonoma, Calif.

What angers me about Government lavishness is not the vast sums of money spent foolishly but the taxpayers' inability to veto such splurges as Reagan's Jamaican self-indulgence.

Gregory P. Davidson

San Francisco

Nuclear Picnic

If a nuclear war appears imminent, citizens are expected to pack their cars with picnic gear and take off for the countryside [April 26]. Two weeks later they return, rebuild their homes and live happily ever after. It is a grotesque scenario that only a depraved Government would try to sell to its citizens.

John M. Kuypers

New Orleans

According to your article on civil defense, in event of a nuclear attack, the President and key advisers would prepare to be whisked aboard the doomsday plane. Meanwhile, citizens would head out into the countryside to take shelter. What happened to the old adage "The captain always goes down with the ship"?

Thomas E. Conway

Champaign, Ill.

Middle East Fury

People may have the impression that most Israeli citizens agree with their government's position on the West Bank [April 26]. This is not the case; 40% to 50% of the population oppose it. On March 27 more than 20,000 followers of the Peace Now movement took part in a demonstration to protest the government's policy. As one speaker said, "We are concerned with the deterioration of morality in Israel," referring to our behavior toward our Arab citizens.

Begin was re-elected by a hairbreadth. Many concerned Israeli citizens are aghast, but helpless, in the face of his unethical and hawkish policies.

Rachael Chazan

Jerusalem

Why is Rabbi Kahane condoning the murder of Arabs as they assemble at one of the holiest of mosques? Kahane's vicious tongue is a danger to Middle East peace.

Arthur Michael Ruelaz

La Habra, Calif.

Top of the Heap

Your article on the Toyo Kogyo Co. [April 26] states that the Mazda GLC is the world's third bestselling model, behind the Toyota Corolla and the Volkswagen Rabbit. You have been misinformed. Ford's Escort is the bestselling car in the world. Estimates for 1981 show Ford Escort at 823,000, the VW Rabbit at 759,000 and the Toyota Corolla at 702,000.

John McDougall

Executive Vice President

Ford International Automotive Operations

Dearborn, Mich.

Taxes and Tuition

In your article on tax credits for private schools [April 26], Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, was quoted as saying: "There is no more reason to pay for private education than there is to pay for a private swimming pool for those who do not use public facilities." He should know that the law requires young people to go to school. It does not require them to go swimming.

(The Rev.) John P. Reynolds

New Orleans

The President's planned tuition tax credit will lead to further destruction of an already crumbling public school system. While many may take advantage of this plan, public school teachers will be sent heading for the unemployment lines.

Anthony Falcone

Akron

Drinking and Driving

In the years I have worked on a rescue squad, I can remember only three car accidents that did not involve a drunken driver [April 26]. I think that the most effective way to deal with this problem is to have an offender go on a number of rescues. That way drivers will be able to see a bloodied child, a burned victim and a wife weeping for her dead husband.

Lise Kowalski

Providence

Is the party over? Not when a three-day jail sentence for first offenders, which has been agreed to by judges in Quincy, Mass., is considered stern. Five years would be more fitting.

Kevin Leach

Lake Grove, N. Y.

Chess in Space

Your book review "How to Make War" [March 8] was illustrated by a photograph of my space-age chess set design. No credits were given for this design, which is a patented product and has been marketed in Europe and the U.S. The development of this set represents years of work and dedication.

Arthur Elliott

Rome

Bold Bishops

The U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are to be commended for their aggressive stands against our Government's position on El Salvador, nuclear arms and domestic budget slashing [April 19]. It is heartening to see these church leaders taking the lead on these questions instead of speaking out only on safe issues. The clergy must address these issues if they take their mission seriously.

John Winterson

Washington, D.C.

I applaud the U.S. Catholic leadership for the courageous stand it has taken against nuclear weapons. The position of the Catholic bishops only aggravates my shame over the bishops of the United Methodist Church, who either do not see the moral dilemma of the American Christian regarding nuclear weapons or are so cowardly that they refuse to speak out.

(The Rev.) Michael E. Hardwick

Cincinnati

As a practicing Catholic of 66 years, I deplore the stance of most of the U.S. bishops on nuclear arms and El Salvador. I believe these are political questions best left to the President and Congress to resolve. As a taxpayer, I am also interested in the case of Archbishop Hunthausen, who is refusing to pay half his income taxes as an antinuclear protest. I am as strongly opposed to other things my Government is doing as the archbishop is to nuclear arms. Yet I will continue to pay all my taxes for the other wonderful benefits my country gives.

Albert A. Ciabattari

Hayward, Calif.

Archbishop Hunthausen should explain how his refusal to pay half his income taxes complies with Christ's teaching that one should "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Following the archbishop's philosophy, Catholics in Seattle who do not agree with Hunthausen's position should feel free to cut their financial contributions to the diocese by half.

Marek W. Rudny

Calgary, Alta.

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