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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 19, 1993                   TAG: 9301190325
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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DON'T SQUANDER U.S. WEALTH ABROAD

WATCHING television is getting to be hazardous to our mental health. I am sure that I'm not alone in my nervousness over the national debt. As a nation, our debt amounts to $4.3 trillion. Since the interest on this debt will be up to $370 billion this year, and this debt has grown by $110 billion in the past 10 weeks (since the election, according to CBS News), I'm getting frantic.

Think about it - 260 million people divided into $4.3 trillion is $16,500 for every man, woman and child alive today. My wife, daughter and myself owe $49,500 today and will owe $50,000 by the time this is printed.

How are we going to pay this and keep our nation going? We have elected a new president, who is supposed to have answers to the deficit problem, and what does he do? He starts with spending millions on a national conference to solve the problem before he is even sworn in.

Now, we are almost single-handedly taking on the problem in Somalia, and it looks like we will be in a fight with Saddam Hussein's regime again. Will the State Department still give out billions (foreign aid) to other countries to buy their influence when the Cold War is now over? Why should a Democratic government of the United States have to buy anyone? How about budgeting domestic aid instead? At this point, if our country's money and power is used in a foreign land, it sounds to me like a ploy for personal/political gain by the powerful committee members of Congress.

We must stop squandering the wealth of our nation on give-away programs and police action around the globe. We cannot afford it - nor can our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren . . .. EDWARD C. BLEVINS CHRISTIANSBURG

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