Help needy directly

Recently in the opinion section, Dina Nash berated Gov. Asa Hutchinson for promoting a tax cut. She was pushing for the tax-cut savings that we, the people, pay for government services to go instead for helping the poor with food, child care, medical care, etc. But I must vehemently disagree. We, the people, should be helping our neighbors directly rather than the government.

If I give someone $10 to help them out, they get the full $10. If instead we push the government to do this job, the person might get one of the $10

they would have gotten from me. We need to stop relying on the government to do what we should be doing, and that, my friends, will reduce our tax burden. And the needy will get more money and assistance. I would happily give money to food banks and shelters rather than demanding that the government take care of assisting the people needing help, increasing our tax burden. I would rather see a direct benefit of my money going to help more people than depending on the government.

And the number of state employees would be reduced, which our good governor is touting. Ms. Nash was complaining about the reduction in our state employees as it put them out of work. But employers are begging for people to come to work, so available jobs are not the issue. I don’t have the money to give to both the government and private groups that help those in need.

Let’s instead do what we as a religious people, whether Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist or whatever, should be doing.

CHUCK BISHOP

Little Rock