Letter to the editor: Stop huge tax breaks for billionaires

In conversations with my neighbors in the Winlock-Toledo area, I am hearing both resignation and outrage. 

I’ve heard very little support for DOGE and the president’s agenda of cutting social programs like Medicaid, food programs such as SNAP, Head Start, even VA benefits, Social Security and Medicare. All in order to afford huge tax cuts for the billionaires. 

Instead, there is outrage as cut after cut is revealed. Or resignation: “Well, what can we do about it?”

My neighbors, along with the majority of the U.S., are right to be outraged that we are being robbed blind, given that our tax dollars, emphasis on “our,” are going to go to tax breaks for the corporate few and billionaires, rather than the intended purpose.

The intent was that the government would fund decent public education and health care, both of which are human rights. That government would be there to assist after natural disasters. The government’s purpose would be to use our tax dollars for the people, not for the wealthy class.

The only way I can make sense of why the billionaire class, along with the current president, are giving tax breaks to themselves to the tune of trillions of dollars that increase the deficit, is greed, along with a belief system in what Elon Musk said: “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” 

We are seeing what greed and lack of empathy looks like in the present budget bill, which has passed the House and includes cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. More than 274,000 Washingtonians could lose health insurance coverage over the next decade.

It now goes to the Senate before being potentially signed into law. 

Instead of resignation, call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for a Republican senator such as Susan Collins who you think can be swayed, demanding they vote against the budget bill. 

They need to know the majority public sentiment.

Linda Warren

Winlock