Then, shouldn't the family list each item requiring an outgo of funds, along with an `emergency' fund. If the outgo is less than or equal to the income, then the family is within its budget or exactly balanced.

If the family wishes any extras, it must determine if there is enough excess to do so. If the family wants to retain extras it has had, such as going out and eating, gym fees, and vacations, the balance after the necessities are taken care of determine if the extras may continue.

If the family has money going out for extras that shouldn't be going out in order to stay in budget, then the extras should be done away with or cut back until the family's income increases. An example might be doing one's own yard mowing rather than hiring it done. Or, painting a room rather than hiring a contractor to do it.

Granted, it may be more complex, but shouldn't our employees, Congress, use the same basic procedure? It can be determined each year how much money will be received through all forms of taxes, and any other incomes the government might have, such as income from the sales of arms.

Computers can list exactly the amount of money coming in and what every dollar is being paid out for. At least, there better be exact records of the income to the government and of where every tax dollar goes.

In other words, costs or outgo can be itemized. Logically, if the income is known and if every item that requires part of the income can be determined, then isn't it just a matter of deterimining which of the outgo items have priority?

As an example, if there are people who really don't have a function even though in a 'government' position (yes, they do exist), why are they still on payroll? Isn't it amazing that after the big layoff of government employees due to a lack of money, that the government kept on running without all the `extra' personnel? Has anyone detected a change since the personnel were put back on the job?

How about committees that are established with extra, excessive allocations? A few years ago, Mr. Paul Harvey reported an unbelievable fact to his listeners. At the time, there was a committee established to investigate the abuse of alcohol. That was all well and good.

This, however, is the extraordinary information given by Mr. Harvey. The committee had a refreshment allocation, including for alcoholic beverages, are you sitting down, of $10,000,000,. That was so outlandish and so like Washington, that the writer has never been able to get it out of his mind. To this day, he wonders about every committee established and what its financial allocations are actually used for. An investigation of this might be most enlightening. (Hmm, wonder if he can get a government allocation of funds for an investigative committee?)

Another example of questionable funding occurring at the present is all the money that has been spent on the Whitewater situation. ABC World News reported in January that the Republicans needed $600,000 more to investigate the billing that was done by Mrs. Clinton and her law firm.

The investigative body had already spent $1,400,000 on the `case' apparently trying to prove there were impropriaties concerning President Clinton and the First Lady. Special addendum: Little did we know at the time that the amount spent was going to be in excess of $40,000,000 and the tally isn't complete as of this date, February 27, 1999.

One would think that if the investigators weren't successful in their endeavors to prove the Clintons had engaged in illegal activities in the first six months of the investigation, why even continue with the investigation? Isn't that kind of like beating a dead horse?

Besides, it is very difficult to find an ordinary, everyday person that cares about or knows much about Whitewater. As for carrying on the investigation to the present, it is possible that the Republicans had a different politically motivated objec- tive. And guess who is footing the bill.

Our congressmen should be doing everything possible to get rid of the waste in government. Taxpayers should not be footing the bill for excess personnel, excessive contracts, investigative committees that have a rather questionable existence, and the ridiculous amounts of money that are spent for everyday items, just to name a few sources of waste.

A solution might be that when such ridiculous spending becomes public knowledge, the politicians and their staffs that approved the billing should be held accountable and have to refund the excess paid out. It would be a good bet that accountability of that nature would stop some of the ridiculous costs taxpayers suffer.

So, here it is, Congress. Determine the income to the government. Determine the outgo our nation currently has.

Then, establish priorities of the itemized costs. Get rid of the extras and the excesses. And, that doesn't include our national parks, part of our protected heritage. Assure worthwhile programs established for the good of the majority will still have enough funding.

No, you might not be able to set up worthless (to most of the public) investigative committees and the like; you might not be able to raise your own incomes and retirements as you have so freely done in the past; you might have to fire a few secre- taries and other non-essential personnel; and, you might even have to pay your own way on vacations, instead of talking politics for five minutes and turning in a voucher for the entire trip.

But, if you really care about the people you represent, the people you work for, you'll get the budget job done. You'll stop all your bitching and moaning about the other party and blaming our huge debt on everything other than yourselves and your party.

Each and everyone of you in Congress is involved in government spending and it would be most appropriate if you kept that in mind.

Finally, consider these points. Every time Congress gets bogged down, it wastes manhours which is a waste of money. If one has ever listened to a Congressional hearing, the one thought that stands out is that congressmen love to hear themselves talk.

All that rhetoric wastes the public's time and money. And, how much time and money, not even considering solutions to problems, have been lost because of party conflicts?

Don't you think that the time you have wasted through bickering, that the money splurged could have been better spent working to solve the budget problem? That is - solve the problem, not merely provide a temporary fix.

So, get with it, Congressmen, and work together. That's the American way.