Bush Budget Calls for More Defense Spending

President Bush seems determined to resurrect the disastrous borrow-and-spend policies of his Republican predecessors, Ronald Reagan and dear old Dad (“Bush Seeks $48-Billion Defense Hike,” Jan. 24). The U.S. already spends more on its military than all other nations on the planet combined; where is this money going? If $331 billion a year is insufficient to defend the country from a dozen guys armed with razor blades, then I’m afraid another $48 billion isn’t going to help.

Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility has already caused him to come up an astonishing $106 billion short on this year’s budget; rather than further cripple the U.S. economy with yet another ill-advised spending binge, Bush should tell his cronies in the Carlyle Group, Lockheed and Boeing: “Sorry, I already spent your $48 billion on that tax cut I gave you last year.”

Randall Smith

San Diego

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I read with astonishment your separate articles on President Bush’s request for a $48-billion hike for defense programs and about LAUSD principals, already struggling to make ends meet, who were recently given a few hours to choose which programs they would have to eliminate from our children’s education because of the governor’s budget cuts.

What came to mind was a profound statement made by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” That was more than 30 years ago. I do believe we have gone into cardiac arrest.

Victoria Ballesteros

Downey

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Re your article on the $48-billion defense hike and the budget director predicting that the 2003 deficit will be $80 billion, while Bush seeks further tax cuts: That strategy leads me to believe that I can solve my financial problems by reducing my income.

Wally Beardsell

Pacific Palisades