Thank you for publishing Emily Carton’s letter in this week’s paper. I agree with her about the current Presidential Administration, with its unqualified picks for such key jobs as Secretary of Defense, HHS, and on and on. Worse still, an unelected billionaire and cronies have been designated by this President to find so-called “waste, fraud, and abuse,” when what they’ve actually been doing is plundering the private data of American citizens. Their goal? Destroy what remains of the US social safety net–Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid–to name just three federal programs that help many West Virginians.
Our current West Virginia Legislature and Governor, a Republican supermajority, are doing the exact same things. We Democrats, Independents, and principled Republicans, however, are doing our best to insist our elected representatives stand up against this tyranny and support these federal programs, many of which require state matching funds in order to operate. I urge people to access multiple sources of news–for example, listen to NPR’s news, Fox news, the BBC, local radio stations, etc.–in order to get a better sense of what is going on. As someone trained in history, I am listening to multiple sources of news, in order to critically think about what’s happening, and why it is happening. That’s why I am deeply concerned, and your readers should be, too.
Don’t believe the upheavals caused by Trump and his allies affect you? Wait for it. If you’re a veteran, on disability, or among the many who rely on Social Security to pay the bills–the Social Security you’ve paid into for decades–you are going to eventually feel the effects of this billionaire destruction plan. If the billionaires running things right now have their way, they will take it all away. What needs to happen, instead, is reform the tax code and make billionaires pay their fair share in taxes, and fully fund Social Security and other vital programs.
