Protect social safety net

The GOP should be shoring up the nation’s social safety net, not slashing it back (“Senate GOP takes another step,” July 26). The party has all these plans for cutting millions of people from the Medicaid rolls. Americans will be made miserable and some will even die if this effort succeeds.

Beyond that, Congress should protect and expand Medicare — such as providing additional help for low-income people with their co-payments for drugs and other costs.

In addition, Congress should continue to pay Planned Parenthood for services it provides, in particular for low-income women.

Obviously programs like food stamps and public assistance for housing are crucial, too. Cutting or slashing funding for the social safety net will turn us into a Third World nation and help destroy the middle class. — Larry Regan, Haverhill