President Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington DC 20500
21 March 2017
Dear President Trump,
According
to an article in the Chicago Tribune on March 15, your proposed budget would involve
massive cuts for the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, State, and the Environmental
Protection Agency. It would eliminate
funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the
Humanities, PBS, and the National Institutes of Health. These cuts will result in the elimination of
tens of thousands of jobs and will cripple these agencies while generating
relatively little in savings for the government.
The
reasoning for this that I am hearing (please correct me if I have this wrong)
is that such cuts are painful but necessary in order to come closer to
balancing the budget and decreasing the deficit.
I
understand about the necessity sometimes to tighten one’s belt to live within
one’s means. But the rest of your budget
doesn’t align with this idea. You would
increase spending on defense by 54 billion, and spend 1.7 billion to build the
wall you claimed the Mexican government was going to pay for.
Let
me be clear. I pay taxes and have done
so for the past 35 years. I am delighted
to pay taxes to maintain National Parks, support art, pay for health research,
and help people who need it. I also
understand the need for a national defense.
I see no compelling reason to increase that national defense. I have likewise heard no reasonable
justification for spending billions of dollars to build a wall across our Southern
border.
In
short, Sir, it seems to me that your budget will benefit military contractors and
construction contractors, but will do nothing to make life better for
most Americans. As such, I oppose this budget
and encourage you to go back to the drawing board and come up with something
that will keep our air and water clean, help us educate children, and provide
for those who need help.
Regards,
Bill Boerman-Cornell
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