The Economy To the Editors:

When will we value the N.G.P. (national growth of people) over the G.N.P.? I fear not until we run out of the means of perpetuating our cherished consumption economy. Your article "Trying to Build Confidence" [Jan. 30] implied that a healthy, happy America buys, buys, buys everything business sells, sells, sells. Laury Kohlenbrener Madison, Wis.

Cutting taxes while offering a deficit budget is no way to strengthen the dollar or to achieve economic stability.

Anyone who believes that more spending with reduced income will cure inflation must be a peanut head!

Harvie Barnard Tacoma, Wash.

So $500.2 billion is "a tight budget"? Only a $60.6 billion deficit? In 1959 President Eisenhower presented our first $100 billion budget; people were outraged. Now, hardly a whimper is heard as Jimmy Carter quintuples that expenditure.

Michael Auerbach Waterford, Conn.

He mentioned it many times during the campaign, but not until he became President and presented his budget of $500,000,000,000 did we find out what Jimmy Carter really meant by zero-base budgeting.

K. Harold Sankman Skokie, III.

Italy's Protest Vote Italy's Protest Vote As a European-oriented democratic socialist, I understand American apprehension at the mounting power of the Communist Party [Jan. 23]. My question, however, is: Do you Americans think that one-third of the Italian electorate has just gone crazy in voting for the Communists, or do you think there must be a reason for this massive protest?

After World War II, Italy's society underwent a forced industrialization that has made it pass from a backward agricultural Mediterranean country to a major industrial power in the West. At what cost did all this happen?

Italy is now a sagging, corrupt, crisis-ridden industrial country where all--and I mean all--social problems have been left unsolved and ignored. Our society, especially the young people (now accused of being monsters), has become fully aware that all our hard work returns nothing in the way of jobs, better schools, hospitals, houses and public services.

Italians don't want another dictatorship. We want freedom, but we care about what we don't get from democracy.

Paolo Roccatani Rome

After World War II, the U.S. and Russia wanted to keep the status quo in their zones of influence. But Russia has been more aggressive and has tried everything to increase its power and diminish America's. America wants the status quo in Italy; Russia does not. Although the Communists in Italy are preaching freedom, justice and equality, the Russians do not care whether there is peace, prosperity or justice in Italy, or a civil war or misery. What matters is to gain power, especially against America.

Angela Bertolo Pordenone, Italy

Homosexuality and the Clergy

Those watching the Presbyterians' debate on "Homosexuality and the Clergy" [Jan. 30] may find it easier to understand how modern-day liberal theologians support homosexuality if they realize that those theologians deny that the Bible, in its entirety, is God's word. Once they reject the authority of the Bible in one area, they lose any basis to claim the Bible's authority in other areas as well.

They are like tumbleweeds, cut from their roots, blowing with every change of the secular winds.

Kenneth W. McClintock Council Grove, Kans.

Presbyterian liberals dismiss the hostile view of Leviticus and St. Paul toward homosexuality as "conditioned by time and place." But that is exactly why any sane man should dismiss the Presbyterian liberals. Their view is one conditioned by and limited to the last half of the 20th century and held by only a handful of ecclesiastical bureaucrats.

(The Rev.) S. Bowen Matthews Wilmington, Del.

Hallelujah! Some of the Presbyterians actually are Christians!

Specific standards of conduct based on anything other than the love of God and the love of one's neighbor as oneself are outmoded. Thankfully, some of the Presbyterians have finally admitted that the homosexual is created in the image and likeness of God, too.

Bruce L. Henry Northville, Mich.

That the church has been a pious fraud for centuries is no secret. What can more cogently point to its abnegation of moral authority than a serious consideration among the clergy of whether homosexuals can, apparently in good conscience, aspire to the pulpit? Why not prostitutes, too? After all, some of them may be "Christian believers"!

D. June Fredman Millersville. Mo.

The Short People

Shame on you, TIME, for getting involved with the witless controversy over Randy Newman's hit, Short People [Jan. 30]. My initial impression of the song remains unchanged by all this brouhaha: it's a funny song about prejudice of any sort.

Only a paranoiac or a bigot could find this song offensive.

Andrea M. Cooke Chicago

I, with other short friends of mine, enjoy Randy Newman's song. The shortsighted, short-minded, short-souled. short-of-brains people who hate Short People are short of humor as well.

Joseph Nuttall Tucson, Ariz.

I am 6 ft. tall, and for most of my 42 years have borne, with good grace and humor, people asking me, "How's the weather up there?" As far as I'm concerned, Randy Newman's Short People is just a catchy tune.

Patti Griffiths Oklawaha, Fla.

Loyal Repairmen

Your cartoon with "Hoover's Home Improvements" [Jan. 23] made me realize why J. Edgar Hoover had FBI men do his repair work. Since bugs or bombs could have easily been planted by repairmen, wasn't it safer and more economical for loyal employees to do the work? An alternative would have been to hire outside help and assign a loyal agent to watch each repairman.

Eight men to do the job of four is an economic waste.

Josephine Hubert Northport, N. Y.

Return of Romance

Hooray to Frank Trippett for his Essay, "New Sentimental Journey" [Jan. 30]. Fortunately, he has merely predicated what we romanticists have always (albeit secretly) predicted--that the pendulum would inevitably swing back, in our favor!

(Mrs.) Boni Crnic Los Angeles

I hope you don't mean to imply that because people seem to be treating each other more romantically, the conditions under which women had to live in the so-called "romantic" ages will also return.

Annie Wauters Washington, D.C.

If saccharine love songs, soap operas, tea dances and simple-minded optimism mean a return to romanticism, then give me the harsh realism of my "generation of nightmares." The "self-indulgence" of those who gave their time, money and sometimes lives to the antiwar and civil rights movements helped make the current dream ride possible. The '60s were no sentimental journey, but we survived those years by living, not dreaming through them.

Katharine Kellogg Hamburg, Mich.

Jerry Brown's Energy Program

Thank you for the article on Governor Jerry Brown's energy and space programs [Jan. 30]. I find more and more to like about that renegade politician; he seems to wield his power with intelligence and without dollar waste. Right or wrong, the man has both courage and vision.

Thomas Jack Brownsville, Pa.

Jerry Brown's wood chips, walnut shells and rice hulls ' might produce enough heat for the state capitol if they were baked until they emit organic gas, which is then collected and burned as fuel. But what are you going to use as fuel to bake them with, Jerry?

Marney Stroud Monterey, Calif.

According to California energy experts, once the wood chips and walnut shells are lit with a blowtorch or an electric hot rod, they continue to bake on their own and give off a steady supply of gas.

Smothered Onions

A letter from James Kuzmak [Jan. 23] criticized the listing of "steak with smothered onions" on a menu. Reference to any number of well-known cookbooks will reveal that smothered onions are lightly sauteed with the cover on, hence the "smothering."

Richard F. Grambow Lopez, Wash.

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