No Funds for Metro Rail

The federal government has a budget deficit crisis that must be resolved. To accomplish this task, priorities must be established. How to eliminate it? Raise taxes? Cut programs? A combination of the two? It is a complicated process, which above all else must be fair to the American people. However, the juxtaposition of two budget items indicates that the government may place a higher priority on the requests of a foreign government than on the needs of the American people.

The first item is a proposal by David Stockman, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to eliminate $654 million from the RTD’s budget. This cutback will jeopardize the construction of the Metro Rail. When one considers recent press reports, which predict a traffic gridlock for downtown Los Angeles during the 1990s, the cancellation of this project becomes an irrational solution to the deficit dilemma unless there is a viable alternative that would be funded.

The second items is Israel’s formal request for an $800 million emergency aid package for 1985 and a $4.05 billion military and economic package for 1986. This latter figures represents a 53%-- $1.4 billion increase over the 1984 level.

It is neither fair nor logical to delete urgently needed transportation systems and, yet, grant massive aid increases to a foreign country. If we can not afford to build transportation systems for ourselves, then we can not afford to borrow money to give to a foreign government. If we, Americans, must tighten our belts and do without, then recipients of American foreign aid must do without augmentation, except in cases of real and true emergencies as in Ethiopia.

ARCH MILLER

Arcadia