To the editor:
It’s the same old conservative line: Cut services to the poor and disabled, and increase spending on defense. After all, as Marie Antoinette is believed to have said, let them eat beautiful chocolate cake. (“Trump budget underscores new national priorities: slashing the safety net and taxes,” May 23)
We get these kinds of proposals without many details. It is assumed that the poor will survive since there are so many of them, so why waste our tax dollars on Medicaid and children’s health programs? Our bucks will get more bang by investing in defense. Yet, what exactly is the bang?
But as we’ve seen all too often, you don’t need a large military today to take on an enemy. Lone suicide bombers like the one in Manchester, England, can grip a nation in fear. It doesn’t take hundreds of billions of dollars to take these “losers” on.
So why not concentrate on the poor, the sick and the defenseless? All those products of war won’t make us stronger, but compassion and common sense just might.
Don A. Norman, Los Angeles
Note from KBJ: Thank God this man isn't in charge of our national defense!
