Cuts are outrageous

Dear Editor,

Let’s start here. Representative Tom Tiffany (WI -CD7) “hopes the next Congress also looks at cutting some aspects of mandatory spending, like food stamps.” Heck, it just means more hungry kids, but that is a small price to pay so they can extend tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy and corporations. Is that what you voted for last month?

Meanwhile Elon Musk parades though the halls of congress with his well-fed, well-clothed, and lacking for nothing son on his shoulders preaching to the Republican faithful that cutting spending to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, VA benefits, Head Start, FBI (isn’t that defunding the police?), and virtually everything else is on the table.

Few would argue that there isn’t waste in federal spending.  Many of us are old enough to remember Sen. Proxmire and his Golden Fleece Awards, things like private companies who have government contracts charging taxpayers $600 for a hammer or a toilet seat. Before cutting programs that keep children and seniors out of poverty, I’d like to see Musk show us his government contracts to see how many of those hammers are buried in his contracts.

You don’t solve the government deficit by cutting benefits to those who need them most. That is especially true when you are doing it in order to pay for huge tax cuts to the very people who already have more money than they can spend and corporations that are hauling in greater profits than any time in our history.  It is infuriating to see the arrogance of two billionaires presuming they have the right to decide which benefits we don’t deserve so they can expand their extravagant wealth.

If the Trump Administration, now potentially staffed by at least ten billionaires in high-ranking positions, leads us to an extension of the Trump 2017 tax cut there are things you can count on in our future. First, the net worth of those billionaires will continue to explode as they have since 2017. How much has your worth increased since then? Second, you will find yourself spending more time at community fundraisers to keep essential community services funded and going to GoFundMe pages to assist neighbors who find themselves in financial need.

The Trump Adminitration will try to convince you that the tax cut is for you, but the few bucks you will save there will be consumed multiple times if you are one of folks who believes in supporting your community and neighbors.

By the way, the Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature will almost certainly be trying to do the same thing in the budget for 2025. They did it in the last budget, they cut essential services out of the Governor’s budget and attempted to replace those things with a large tax cut for those making over $400,000 a year.

The ultra-rich and corporations need to pay their fair share of taxes, not benefit from large tax cut at the expense of our communities and our neighbors who need those SNAP benefits, Social Security checks, and Medicare. I ask you again, what did you intend to vote for in November?

Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind;  it forces you to stretch your own."  Charles Scribner Jr.  

Beverly Pestel

Richland Center, WI