Et Tu, Geralde?

President Gerald Ford may have made friends in Eastern Europe on his way home from the Helsinki Summit last week, but he made few in New York City. Speaking to the good Communist burghers of the Belgrade city assembly, Ford said of his own largest metropolis, "They don't know how to handle money. All they know is how to spend it."

The response from New York was swift. "I don't think this Administration understands the problems of cities," snapped Mayor Abraham Beame. City Council President Paul O'Dwyer's protest was succinct: "Crass stupidity." Their irritation had some justification. While the city is trying to raise a modest $960 million to make ends meet this month, the U.S. Treasury is borrowing almost $6 billion. Indeed, Treasury Secretary William Simon has said he was "optimistic" that this year's federal deficit can be held to a mere $60 billion on a budget that will include $3.4 million for a dairy-and beekeeping-indemnity program, and $45 million to keep the Selective Service System functioning--just in case today's all-volunteer Army ever wants to draft somebody.

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