Health bill, budget would cause great pain

Dear Editor: The Senate “health” care act is a sham, a con. It is a massive shift of money from those who can least afford it to the 1 percent.

The proposed budget — in addition to the conceivable passing of this horrendous, hurtful, supposed health care bill — is going to create incredible pain on our citizens.

The new budget that the current administration has proposed is nothing if not severely detrimental to the well-being of the least among us. We have spent too many years shifting money to the richest among us. We are also taking money away from programs that enrich our lives to give to the military, which already takes up a huge share of the budget.

Many of the cuts will hurt most severely those who actually voted for Donald Trump. The rural and aging population, in our own state as well as others, will see huge cuts in services at a time when the Baby Boomer generation is reaching an age when facilities like nursing homes and hospitals are going to be most needed. This is especially going to hurt aged women who already suffer from reduced incomes during their own working lives.

The Low Income Heating Assistance Program, especially necessary in the cold Northeast, is proposed to be eliminated.

Food assistance programs that help the unemployed poor, many elderly citizens, children and babies, and the working poor will be drastically cut. Why in God’s name would we want our elderly to return to the days of eating cat food to survive and our children to suffer malnutrition and slow starvation when we are the richest nation on Earth?

What will we do when our elderly parents are kicked out of nursing homes because of Medicaid cuts to give huge tax cuts to the wealthiest among us?

Readers should contact their representatives in Congress and demand this budget and this health care bill now before the Senate not be enacted as written.

Rachele E. Levy, Ulster Park