To the editor:

Several haunting questions about the economy and the budget have surfaced in my mind lately, especially after reading David Broder’s columns of Feb. 12 and 19. Questions such as: What portion of our supposedly stable economy is dependent on the wars? We know what war has done for the oil industry, for example. If our economy is so healthy, why are there so many plant closings, layoffs, increasing demands on the food banks and requests for food stamps, etc.? Why are the true costs of the wars not factored into the information given to the public?

Why has the Bush administration assumed that the tax cuts for the wealthy will become permanent even before Congress has voted to make them so? As I understand it, that assumption will effectively disguise the cost of the cuts to the U.S. Treasury, over a trillion dollars in the next ten years.

As many more questions crowd in every day, I wonder if other people are as uneasy as I am?

Sarah Casad,

Lawrence