LET'S GET FEDS BACK TO THE BASICS

In a Dec. 1 letter calling for public funding of elections, Gena DiLabio
complains about certain members of Congress who voted for privately run
security at the nations airports ("Election Reform: We must remove cash
from political life"). She states that this service should be federalized
and professionalized - a couple of terms that do not go well together.

The idea that the government is the best solution to all of our problems
seems to be an all-pervasive American myth that flies in the face of most
of the observable evidence.

The U.S. Constitution clearly federalizes the common defense. This is the
overriding mission of the federal government. Yet, while law enforcement
ran around spending billions of dollars on a drug war, and arresting over
700,000 Americans on marijuana charges, foreign terrorist cells operated
internally with a free hand and successfully murdered thousands of
taxpaying citizens.

This past October it was announced that mock terrorist attacks against
federally secured DOE nuclear facilities succeeded more than half the time.
GAO investigators, posing as law enforcement officers, were able to
penetrate federal security at the Pentagon, CIA headquarters and the
Justice Department.

While the Soviets have 9,000 nuclear interceptor missiles, admittedly
crude, we have absolutely no defense against the real threat of nuclear attack.

Until the feds show us that they can perform their primary duty of
defending our nation without spending $900 on a toilet seat, while many
enlisted members of our armed forces rely on food stamps to feed their
families, I would suggest that giving them more to do can only make things
worse.

The micro-managing of our individual lives by the federal government isn't
working and wastes resources.

As a positive step in the right direction, let's take a good look at the
10th Amendment, solve our social problems at the state level, and get the
federal government back to basics, where they may have a chance at
succeeding. As we have now seen demonstrated, our very lives depend on it.

TONY SMULLIN

Libertarian Party of Snohomish County

Everett