(MONEY Magazine) – May's Editor's Notes said we should kill the 20% withholding tax on lump-sum retirement payouts and make up the lost revenues by reducing federal employees' pensions. Here are other alternatives for saving or raising money: -- Require members of Congress to roll back the last big pay raises they voted for themselves. -- Eliminate the tax write-off for second-home mortgages. -- Require career military personnel to contribute to their retirement. Also require at least 30 years' service before drawing retirement; otherwise, start the retirement pay no earlier than age 62. -- Limit treatment at veterans' hospitals to those people who have medical problems that are service related. ! Gary Fortier Fort Worth

I work for the Department of Defense (DOD). I give 10 to 20 hours a week of free overtime to the taxpayers of this country because DOD can't afford to pay me, but the public still expects the mission to be accomplished. I buy my own office supplies because my installation long ago ran out of funds to buy them for me. And now you want to cut my pension. What have you sacrificed for your country lately? Name withheld San Antonio