Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Editor, Times-Union:
I believe taxpayers would agree it is our right to know what is really going on in our country with our money. Our Constitution authorizes elected officials (federal and state Congresses) to determine how and where and for whom our taxes are spent. Recently we were made aware that the richest man in the world (and the biggest donor to Donald Trump’s campaign in 2024) was given the task to “cut wasteful government spending” at his discretion with the help of a handful of very young, inexperienced IT lackeys. In record time, they cut thousands of personnel, shut down programs and agencies, and proclaimed their work was done.
With no explanations or accountability, they determined that funding for at least 32 agencies providing safety benefits for all U.S. residents should be cut by billions of dollars. Some of those agencies decimated include the Departments of Education, Defense, Agriculture, FEMA, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security. No one would argue that wasteful practices and spending should be addressed. However, studying each of those departments and their practices should have taken many months and been reviewed by qualified overseers with expertise in each of those departments/agencies.
My concerns now are centered around the new wasteful spending resulting from those cuts and the process by which that spending has been approved. For instance, a “gifted” jet needing millions of dollars of re-fitting for the President (when 2 other multi-million dollar jets for his use are still under contract at Boeing); the costly dismantling of parts of the White House building and grounds for the benefit of the rich and famous and the egotistical wish list of an authoritarian leader; the “dress-up” costumes and now $172 million purchase of two private jets for the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; the diversion of $75 billion to ICE to continue harassing, brutalizing and disappearing not just the worst of the worst — now including innocent children, American citizens, and anyone who looks like they are not legal caucasian citizens; the $40 billion bail out of a country under the failing leadership of yet another wannabe dictator; an ever-increasing addition to the $649 million for sending National Guardsmen to cities that do not need or want them based on years-old videos and information force-fed to an aging president controlled by greedy billionaires.
The wasteful spending continues while government workers, military personnel, and millions of other Americans are not getting paid — while their agencies are shut down — while some face being fired as a punishment/threat to Democrat leaders — while citizens across the country await the news about increases in or cancellations of their health insurance premiums — while their cost of living continues to increase — while there is no real peace in Gaza — and while Ukraine is still being decimated.
Adding to America’s humiliation, Trump is literally trashing the White House while considering the construction of yet another “vanity project” at our Capital’s entrance — his “victory” arch — while continuing to spend his weekends golfing.
Jeanne Tuka Schutz
Winona Lake, via email
