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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 17, 1995                   TAG: 9502180012
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLES F. ROBERTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TAXPAYERS HIT FOR MEXICO'S BAILOUT

YOU SERIOUSLY misled readers in the Feb. 4 editorial entitled "A last-minute save for Mexico.'' Apparently, the editorial writer accepted completely President Clinton's cleverly worded press release, which claimed that his action to finance the Mexican currency crisis doesn't amount to a bailout by the U.S. taxpayer.

I think your writer, if believing that line, should be required to tell readers where Clinton obtained the $20 billion he's providing to Mexico. Surely, your people must know that there is only one source of those monies that the president, the Treasury secretary and chairman of the Federal Reserve Board dispense with such generosity: It comes from tax revenues provided by U.S. workers, businesses and professionals. You need to hire writers who understand how this country's fiscal and monetary systems work.

The Federal Reserve chairman's participation in the bailout raises some additional questions. The Federal Reserve now holds about $370 billion in interest-bearing U.S. treasury securities. By law, interest income from these securities is to be used to cover necessary operations of the Federal Reserve. Surpluses are to be returned to the treasury. Some congressmen have charged that present and previous chairmen have diverted some of these revenues to fund their special projects such as the bailout of Third World economies. While these may or may not be worthwhile endeavors, such actions would amount to an expenditure of U.S. funds not authorized or appropriated by Congress. This was one of the charges against Oliver North.

After distorting the situation on the Mexican bailout, your editorial went on to preach the gospel of global trade as the only salvation for most problems confronting this country. As one of the majority of U.S. citizens that you disparage as ``neo-isolationists,'' we don't intend to ``just live with it,'' and see our country's character ultimately destroyed by globalist doctrines that this newspaper and other media sources continue to promote.

Over the past 40 years, there's been a consistent decline in the quality of life for most of our people, in spite of the explosive growth in the global trade that you fervently worship. Our national economic security continues to be undermined by agreements covering trade and other matters negotiated by our officials with a number of outlaw nations, of which China, North Korea and Vietnam are notable examples.

As an indicator of our decline, you should note that the disposable income for all but a small elite among us is now reduced to the point that requires the majority of mothers to become income producers to maintain the family as an economically viable unit. Meanwhile, child-neglect problems are dumped on schools and the rest of society for solutions.

Your editorial implies that we must underwrite the economy of every backward country in the world to prevent them from illegally exporting their indigent, illiterate and diseased underclasses across our open borders. Both illegal immigration and our exploding crime rate can be readily controlled if we have the will to do it. But we can't succeed by adopting the soft-headed prescriptions that are too frequently offered in this newspaper's editorials.

Charles F. Roberts, of Blacksburg, is a retired research scientist from the Department of Agriculture.

by CNB