Dick Durbin is part of the budget problem

To the editor:

In his Thursday letter to the editor, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., stated he helped create a tax package that helped generate the first balanced federal budget in 30 years.

Sen. Durbin and his colleagues met and passed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Congress and President Clinton stated that this act would bring a balanced budget by fiscal year 2002.

Because of the limits placed on government spending (statutory limits), the federal surplus was created by increased tax revenues from the improving economy from 1998 to 2000 and surplus revenues from Social Security and Medicare withholding during the same period.

In 2000, members of Congress met and did what they do best with a surplus. Rather than pay down debt and curtail spending, they started a massive spending spree. Of course, this occurred when the tech bubble burst and the economy headed into a recession -- thus the short-lived surplus became a mirage.

Since 2000 till the present, Sen. Durbin has assisted the government in raising the federal debt from $5.5 trillion to $12 trillion.

Unfunded U.S. liabilities are now $108 trillion. Recently he has voted for bills that would add to this deficit.

This is why Sen. Durbin is an inappropriate selection to sit on the new deficit committee. He is not the solution to the problem; he is the problem.

Michael A. Donnelly

Las Vegas

Kiddie controllers

To the editor:

As a retired air traffic controller, I was surprised at all the attention paid to the controller at JFK letting his kid clear an aircraft for takeoff. So what? The active controllers won't admit it because of all this stink, but I'll tell you a lot of controllers have done it.

You can see the pilot didn't think it was bad and even complimented the kid. Nobody got hurt and it was safe. We should be more concerned with more important things.

BOB FARNUM

LAS VEGAS