The right answers.

Q. Have more Americans gone on the welfare rolls since the economy has taken a downturn?

M.P., Clawson, Mich.

A. The economic downturn has had a mixed impact on the welfare rolls. Nationally, between March and September 2001, as the economy officially entered a recession, the overall number of American families on welfare actually decreased slightly, about 1 percent, according to a recent survey by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Law and Social Policy.

Several of the largest states, including California, had a decline in welfare caseloads during this period. The same advocacy group, however, notes that in about two-thirds of the states there was an increase in the number of caseloads.

Q. How is all that money being used that was paid out in the huge tobacco settlement?

W.T.T., Rochester Hills, Mich.

A. The state attorneys general terminated their lawsuits against tobacco companies in the late 1990s, with the latter agreeing to pay out $246 billion. There were two agreements: for $206 billion (involving 46 states) and $40 billion. Though there was talk about using the money for anti-smoking and health programs, the agreement didn't require that. A study by the General Accounting Office, States' Use of Master Settlement Agreement Payments (June 2001), reveals that only 7 percent was spent to control tobacco use. Some 41.5 percent of the proceeds have gone for health programs, but most of these don't deal with tobacco-related illnesses.

Q. How many American children are now receiving "special education"?

S.B., Batavia, Ill.

A. Special education has grown by leaps and bounds, in part because it has been expanded to encompass a wide range of students, including those with physical disabilities and learning disabilities as well as those who represent behavioral problems.

Definitions have been broadened dramatically, so that almost half of special-education pupils are those with a "specific learning disability" -- most being reading "deficits," according to Wade Horn and Douglas Tynan in The Public Interest (Summer 2001). Horn, a child psychologist and head of the National Fatherhood Initiative, and Tynan, a pediatric psychologist at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., report that special-ed students increased from 8.3 percent in 1976-1977 to 12.8 percent in 1997-1998. They totaled 6.1 million by 2000.

Costs for special-education have reached about $13,000 per student with an annual price tag of $41.5 billion. Ostensibly, the federal government pays 40 percent of the cost, but in actuality it picks up but 12 percent of this "unfunded federal mandate."

Q. Who were the members of the famous Soviet spy ring in Britain that included Kim Philby?

L.K., Mt. Kisco, N.Y.

A. During the 1930s, the Soviets recruited several students at Cambridge University as spies. Called by the KGB the "magnificent five," the group's leader became Harold "Kim" Philby.

Philby's treason was particularly harmful since for several years in the 1940s he actually worked as the head of British intelligence in charge of anti-Communist espionage, allowing him to betray agents and operations to Stalin's secret police. He also worked as Britain's liaison with the Central Intelligence Agency in 1949-51.

Others in the ring included Guy Burgess, who worked for the BBC and M15 -- the domestic security service, akin to the FBI in the United States -- and then in the Foreign Office, where he was employed by Philby in Washington. Donald Maclean became the head of the American Department of the Foreign Office with access to secrets on atomic development. Both Maclean and Burgess were warned of investigators' closing in; they defected to the Soviet Union.

Maclean's escape was also assisted by yet another agent, Anthony Blunt. The "fourth man," Blunt worked for British intelligence during World War II, but he was also supplying the Soviets with recruiting help. Although he confessed to Soviet involvement, he was allowed to continue working as the surveyor of the Queen's pictures until exposed publicly in 1979.

In 1990, the fifth member of the ring was revealed: John Cairncross, who had been recruited by Blunt, and who had worked closely with Maclean in the Foreign Office. While Cairncross was at the Treasury, reported the BBC in 1999, he was "able to leak details about the military decoding centre, Bletchley Park. Cairncross' information enabled Soviet spies to change their codes as British Intelligence were about to crack them. His information about British and American atomic weapons programmes are thought to have been the foundation of the Soviet nuclear programme."

Q. Income taxes are bad enough, to be sure, but aren't payroll taxes even higher for most people?

A.C.D., Annapolis, Md.

A. Since 1977, payroll taxes have been hiked by almost one-third, and for more than 90 percent of U.S. workers they're a heavier burden than income taxes. Half is out of sight because workers don't realize they actually pay the "employer" portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes.

There are other hidden taxes sprinkled throughout the economy, such as gasoline taxes. Full disclosure would require that the 37 percent average tax on each gallon of gasoline be itemized, as is done with sales taxes.

Hidden taxation is the subject of a study by the Texas-based Institute for Policy Innovation. These include such levies as the corporate income taxes, excise taxes, workers' compensation taxes, import taxes, hotel-room taxes, airline taxes, utility taxes, and occupational licensing fees. The conclusion, says IPI, is that only 42 percent of the total tax burden results from income taxes. There are at least $657.5 billion in other hidden taxes, or $2,462 per person.

When taxes are invisible, concludes the IPI study, Americans can't properly evaluate whether they are getting their money's worth from the government. "As a result, hidden taxes help boost the size of government." That is, of course, the underlying reason for the practice.

WILLIAM P. HOAR