To the editor:

This letter is in response to Bonnie Howk’s letter, “Doesn’t want gender war.” It is in direct response to the ridiculous assertion that “our current administration is striving to help all Americans.” I know that the current administration lives in a world of alternative facts, which are called lies by most intelligent people, so I guess it is not surprising that many Trump supporters live there also.

Let’s examine just how our current administration is striving to help all Americans. Begin with a look at the Paul Ryan-proposed Republican alternative solution to the current health care system. Under this plan a single person age 64 (too young yet for Medicare) and earning $26,500 a year would see their annual out-of-pocket insurance costs spike to $14,600, compared to $1,700 under the current system, very helpful indeed. By comparison, a healthy 21-year-old would see his or her costs drop under the new plan.

The hardest hit category of person is over 50, in a rural part of the country, which is relatively low-income under the proposed plan. The biggest losers under the change would be older Americans with low incomes who live in high-cost areas. The number of uninsured will grow by 14 million in 2018 and by 2026 to 24 million and guess who will end up paying for that? The answer of course is every one of us as they will begin again to flood emergency rooms for their health care and when they cannot pay those bills that cost will not be absorbed by the for profit health care system we have in America it will be passed on to the rest of the consumers in the form of higher costs for our services and our premiums.

Now let’s move on the Trump’s compassionate helpful budget proposal. It eliminates $4.2 billion in grants the federal government provides to communities to assist poor people, including the decades-old Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps low-income Americans with their heating bills. Elderly folk freezing in the winter is very helpful, is it not?

It eliminates two major block grant programs to state and local governments; the Community Development Block Grant and the Community Services Block Grant. Among other services, CDBG helps fund Meals on Wheels. Malnourishing the elderly is also very helpful, right? It eliminates $1.2 billion in grants for after-school and summer programs which assist school districts, churches and nonprofit groups serve more than 1.6 million children nationwide mostly of which are under privileged.

If this is your idea of help the count me out. I am not a religious person but as most of the people I see who supported and continue to support Trump and the Republicans in Congress profess to be Christians I would just like to remind them all of what the Bible states on this very subject. Proverbs 14:31 states “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for the Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”

David Nelson

Fredericksburg, Virginia

NUHS Class of 79