TEARING INTO THE DEFICIT

"I doubt the budget will be balanced by 2002. Congress doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to make tough cuts for seven straight years." Bradley R. Beilfuss Lansing, Illinois

Most Americans agree that it is long past time to take serious steps to reduce the deficit and balance the budget [COVER, May 22]. Most agree also that everyone should suffer proportionately to accomplish that goal. But there is grave disagreement over what each American should sacrifice. All federally subsidized programs can be run more efficiently, and many can benefit their constituents even with budget cuts. If Congress is proposing that the government get out of funding any specific programs, however, or if cuts are not going to be proportionate among all recipients of federal funds, that must be fully disclosed to the public for comment, not just left to TV sound bites and platitudes by politicians. Sigrid E. Olson Albuquerque, New Mexico

Americans seem to have forgotten the difference between spending and investing. If balancing the budget is truly motivated by an interest in our children's future, then why aren't people demanding that Washington correct its 30-year slide in public investment? Families and businesses recognize that physical and human capital investments are not the same as current consumption; so should the Federal Government. America can develop a future-oriented fiscal agenda that retains budgetary discipline. But first someone must ask, What about investment? Charles J. Whalen, Resident Scholar Jerome Levy Economics Institute Annandale-on-Hudson, New York Spending money we do not have is a lie. Twenty-six years of lying is enough! We need to balance the budget. Let the cuts begin. John J. Diggins Dallas

Short of a financial catastrophe, nothing will ever cause America to balance the budget or repay the national debt. Too many of us work for the government or receive entitlements, subsidies and welfare for the painful necessary steps to be taken. Anthony R. Palmer Arlington, Texas

In aiming to cut the deficiet while reducing taxes, Congress is burning the candle of misrepresentation at both ends. Promising to scale back the growth of the Medicare program by 2002 but cutting benefits today is burning the candle at both ends and in the middle. It is the height of hypocrisy. Carl M. Zartler Chicago

The staggering U.S. budget deficit and the danger it poses to coming generations are alarming. However, Congress must exercise caution in its efforts to balance the budget by fiscal year 2002. Any drastic measures can cause widespread unemployment and boost the crime rate. They could endanger the lives of children whose families rely on government assistance. Is there a way to lessen the misery of the people affected? Perhaps they could agree to a salary reduction or a shorter workweek rather than find themselves totally out of a job and unable to support their families. Public servants could start the ball rolling by contributing a reasonable portion of their pay to a victims' relief fund. Dominga L. Reyes Ojai, California

THE UNCOVERING OF A SPY

While reading David Wise's account of how Aldrich Ames was unmasked as a traitor [BOOK EXCERPT, May 22] I wondered why the Central Intelligence Agency was so bungling and blind that it didn't see the arrow of suspicion pointing to Ames. Sureley someone higher up was on the take. Sheryl Young Wilmington, Delaware

Would it surprise anybody to find out that some of the Russians involved, and now presumed to be dead, were instead intentional double agents, working with Russian supervisors, and that they are alive in some distant part of Russia with new names and identities? As a reader of espionage novels for many years, I cannot accept that Ames simply "got away with it" for such a long time, or that his various career appointments were not made intentionally. Michael Roy Treister Chicago

SUCCESSFUL RECIPES WIN PRIZES

We were flattered to see the Goldman Environmental Prize appeaer on your chart comparing the monetary value of some of the world's prestigious awards [CHRONICLES, May 22]. A point of clarification is in order, however: while the Pillsbury Bake-Off offers a biennial grand prize of $1 million, the Goldaman Environmental Prizes have a total value of more than just the $75,000 you listed. That is the amount given annually to each of six outstanding environmentalists. Thus the Goldman Environmental Foundation gives out $900,000 every two years, rather than just $75,000 a year. Perhaps we should encourage Goldaman prizewinners to enter the Pillsbury Bake-Off. After all, each of the winners has been able to come up with a successful recipe for saving the world's environment. Duane Silverstein, Executive Director Goldman Environmental Foundation San Franciso

USING THE BULLY PULPIT

Kudos to former President Bush for resigning from the National Rifle Association [THE PRESIDENCY, May 22]. I admire the principles he displayed in doing so and in excoriating the N.R.A. for calling federal agents "jackbooted thugs." As a federal employee, I am pleased to see that people are beginning to react to the hysterical antigovernment rhetoric usually associated with the paranoiac hate groups but now coming from a once proud organization. Bush has shown that even an ex-President can use the bully pulpit to stand up for what is right. Marc McClenahan Gilbert, Arizona AOL: WildcatMcC

I see Bush's resignation as a cop-out. He could have stayed in the organization and tried to rectify its shortcomings from within. Bush belonged to the group for political purposes only. William W. Darichuk Yuma, Arizona

The N.R.A. supports an extremist agenda and is coaxing and bullying its innocent members. They will soon wake up. George Bush was one of the first. Thank you, Mr. Bush. Frank Shephard Falmouth, Massachusetts

More politicians should do what Bush did and quit that pathetic organization. It appears the N.R.A. is no longer in the business of sportsmanship. Russ Coventry Ellison Bay, Wisconsin

The insane proliferation of guns in America is a direct result of the N.R.A.'s efforts. In concert with the avaricious arms suppliers, it has made our wonderful country the most dangerous place in the world to live. Francis X. Conlon Honolulu

BIRDS OF PREY

Another vulture has descended on Oklahoma City to profit from the tragedies of grief-stricken people there. Johnnie Cochran Jr. has filed a class action against a Texas company that made the fertilizer allegedly used as an ingredient in the bomb [OKLAHOMA CITY, May 22]. That's like blaming knife sellers for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Jean Wilson Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

I am disgusted that the vulture attorneys are at it again. This type of blood sucking in the name of the victims is not for their welfare, but for big fees the attorneys stand to pocket. If they had the welfare of the Oklahomans at heart, they would be holding fund raisers and donating all the proceeds to the survivors. B. Vincent Bradley Manti, Utah

SHED A TEAR FOR FARLEY

I have followed the comic strip For Better or For Worse since its inception, and I was saddened when the dog Farley died, as you noted in the tongue-in-cheek Milestoons section [CHRONICLES, May 22]. In fact, I wept at his demise and wondered why his owners, the Paftersons, did not. They looked worried and scared, but not one tear was shed for the hero that saved their little girl's life! Sara Hughes Midland, Michigan

Cartoonist Lynn Johnston, creator of the strip, notes that when Farley died she portrayed the Patterson family as being devastated, even though none of them cried. Johnston assumed that readers, when shown the different family members in various forms of grief, would feel their sadness. "There is more to the family's grief than I have space to show," she explains. She has received more than 500 letters about Farley's death.