Defense Spending in Reagan Years

Before pinning any medals or accolades on Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney for his cancellation of the A-12 airplane (front page, Jan. 8), please consider the following: What he has saved on the $4.8-billion contract is less than one month’s cost of Operation Desert Shield. Cheney has acted against the advice of professional military personnel and has left the United States without the needed plane in the pipeline.

He has dismantled an 8,000-member design/production team. He wants to start all over again, with another plane and other contractors. Time will probably show an increase in cost for whatever airplane is finally produced.

Cheney, and his boss, George Bush, are also committing the United States to a trillion-dollar war in their Mideast “kicking-ass” adventure. This is financial madness, as well as a cruel burden of grief and tears on the afflicted American families and on the entire country.

Even with its cooked books, the Bush Administration is still predicting a $400-billion deficit for this year, without the Mideast war and with a very sizable tax increase.

There’s not a penny in the Treasury. It’s all on the tab for the next generation of Americans to pay.

I don’t think that Cheney or the Bush Administration qualifies for any fiscal honors, not yet or ever.

PATRICK F. FLYNN, Yorba Linda