Hold Pentagon responsible for waste
Thanks for the article about the GOP’s frustration over the deal Trump made with Democrats tying a three-month raise in the debt ceiling to hurricane relief “Senate OKs $15B aid measure,” News, Sept. 8. You have highlighted the conflict between ensuring that those who are struggling from tragedy get the support they need on one hand and the importance of fiscal responsibility on the other.
As someone who experienced homelessness as a child, I am very familiar with that conflict. I am frustrated with those asking for spending cuts to social programs that protect and support vulnerable Americans, while at the same time supporting increases to Pentagon spending. We need to hold the Pentagon accountable for its $125 billion in documented waste and tell our leaders we would rather see some of the more than $600 billion go towards programs that create peace and security. Let’s spend our money in ways that actually support the health and well-being of our citizens.
DENNIS BAUER, DECATUR
Health care left to hang out to dry
Our delegates to Congress seem to have no trouble opening their hearts and our national treasury to rebuild the infrastructures devastated by Irma and her cyclonic siblings. Yet, at least half of them, including our own Georgians, close their hearts and our purse to our most precious resource — our citizens. Do they care how their fellow Americans now suffer and will chronically suffer from the toxins, bacteria, molds, viruses, and cancers before Irma, as a result of Irma, and long after Irma becomes a meteorologic footnote? I doubt our anti-Obamacare politicians stay up at night worrying about their own health insurance coverage and affordability. In the meantime, they don’t seem to worry about leaving millions, figuratively and literally, to hang out to dry.
RABBI SCOTT B. SAULSON, ATLANTA
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