Harry Gross: Rationale of some in Congress baffles him

Dear Harry:

I am going crazy trying to understand what motivates some of our congressmen and senators. In the last election, I voted for candidates who promised to get us out of debt. What we are getting is a bunch of stupid and sometimes inhumane puzzles. On the stupid side we have a proposal to cut funding for nuclear nonproliferation, another for cutting almost $600 million from IRS enforcement. I find that I am nauseated by a proposal to cut the program for poverty-stricken women, infants and children's nutrition. When I try to translate this into family finances, the last thing I want to roll back is my contributions to charity. I got a second job to keep my revenue up where it won't force me to cut back on essentials. Am I too emotional about these things?

What Harry says: I am in no position to judge your emotions. However, some of the proposals on the table are either stupid or flagrantly malicious and self-serving. Over and over for what seems like a hundred years I have opposed reductions in the IRS enforcement budget. For every new enforcement employee there is a revenue increase of several times the salary and fringe benefits paid. Why so many in Congress fail to see the connection between spending and revenue is beyond my ken. Do they wear blinders that restrict their view of revenue when they consider costs? Or are the beneficiaries of reduced or lax enforcement in the driver's seat? On the humanitarian side, I can still remember my mother (a widow with six kids) in the depth of the Depression telling us that "if someone asks, you have to give."

Write Harry Gross c/o the Daily News, 400 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19130. Harry urges all his readers to give blood - contact the American Red Cross at 800-Red Cross.