Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 5 · column 3 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
To the editor:
You tease me to respond to Mr. Sweet’s letter in last week’s News by headlining it, “Mr. Bird Rebutted.” Well, if headlining is all, perhaps you can label this letter, “Mr. Sweet’s Rebuttal Turns Sour.”
The issue I addressed in an earlier letter was whether defense spending or entitlements contributed most to the federal deficit. I argued, with appropriate facts from official statistics, that defense spending had contributed hugely to the deficit, but that the principal entitlements, Social Security and Medical Health Insurance (Medicare), had not added one red cent to the deficit. The silence that followed this argument is implicit admission of its correctness.
Mr. Sweet, instead, shifts the argument to a different issue, namely, that the defense buildup under Presidents Reagan and Bush was a valuable insurance policy against Soviet aggression and well worth the cost. Let’s look at this issue.
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