To the editor:

In a country of just over 340 million people, we live as the wealthiest nation in the world. And from our affluent society — yes, affluent, and not the hellscape or third-world country that 45/47 proclaims to agitate his base — we generate an enormous amount of tax revenue, which our country’s legislators have seen fit to help needy people around the globe.

But the supporters of this administration’s “America First” agenda are diametrically opposed to helping anyone but the grifter in the White House, who isn’t really in need of their hard-earned dollars, now that he’s got Elon bank-rolling his election and massive legal obligations.

In the wake of one of the first of DOGE’s cuts, millions of dollars of Senate-approved USAID is going to waste – no fraud, no abuse — just waste. And at what savings is this being “chainsawed”? The USAID disbursements amount to about 1% of our federal budget.

That…sounds…like…not very much. But I’m of the belief that it goes a long way to ease needy people’s suffering beyond our borders. (Remember what Jesus did with two fishes and five barley loaves.) And this from the party that’s allegedly “pro-life.” Maybe DOGE just didn’t get that memo in their haste to sow chaos.

As for Social Security, the administration needs to remember that it’s our money. I’m reminded of J. G. Wentworth’s operatic commercials when people said, “It’s my money, and I want it now.” Well, I paid in to Social Security, and I say, “It’s my money, and I’m perfectly content to receive it in my usual monthly installments.”

Now, maybe if tax breaks for billionaires weren’t being bandied about as a solution to a budget-balancing proposal…but…I imagine that the world’s wealthiest man would feel threatened without an earned tax break; after all, he’s given plenty to buy his way into his purloined power.

Keith R. Klawitter

Morgan