Phillips on 104th Congress

Kevin Phillips’ Feb. 4 Opinion column, “Why This Congress Must Be Considered the Worst in a Half-Century,” has a couple of odd omissions. Only 44% of the electorate voted in the 1994 elections. If 51% voted for Republican candidates, the “America” with whom the “contract” was made was 22% of the electorate. Is there a correlation of “worst” with “least represen- tative”?

The voter turnout in 1992 was 55%, and a similar figure can be expected in 1996. Who doesn’t vote in the off years? Mainly the young--a group which is strongly in the lower income part of the population. But maybe some of them will vote Republican because of Medicare, balancing the older people who will switch to Democratic on the same issue.

Surely one of the worst Congresses was the 97th. This is the craven crowd that gave Reagan his tax cuts and increase in the defense budget, the main contributions to the swelling of the national debt.

WILLIAM M. KAULA

Los Angeles

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* I wonder if Phillips would consider writing: “Why This News Media Coverage of Political Issues Must Be Considered the Worst in a Half-Century.” I would say that would be just as apropos as his article on Congress.

ERNIE HERNANDEZ

Lake Forest

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* Phillips must have found something to dull his senses. Even a Democratic president has been won over, complimenting this Republican Congress for finally having the guts to propose a balanced budget, when he once said that government should do more. Only this Congress has convinced the president that the “end of big government” is here. What other Congress even comes close to this one?

L.S. MICHELS

Los Angeles