1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

"It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis, you can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing. Military protection. We have to guard the country." Trump (April 1) Trump is asking for $500 billion more in military spending while cutting life-saving programs 13% to 19%. Divert just 1% of that increase ($5B). * $7 billion to prevent the most at risk persons from starving to death world-wide (WFP, 2021) Or... divert 1% of the proposed military budget ($15B). * $13 billion to get every unhoused person in the U.S. an apartment for a year (Scioto, 2024) Or... divert the whole increase ($500B). * $543 billion could provide a guaranteed full-time job for millions of Americans ala the WPA or CCC (CBPP.org, 2018) Or... about the up to $2,000,000,000 a day we're spending on a goalless war of choice with Iran? 14 years of Tomahawk missiles wasted. "1,000 targets, 1,000 missiles." * $88 billion could raise every tax paying household below the poverty line to the poverty line (Census.gov, 2026) * $50 billion for free school lunch and breakfast for every student I'm U.S. (EducationData.org, 2025) * The money spent on this war for oil could have converted the country to independent, sustainable energy (Cody Dahlar, 2026). There's so much we CAN afford in this country. I reject that we are a rich country with such a breathtaking wealth gap. I reject the narratives of waste. I reject austerity. It's time to rescue the American Dream from the bottom up.