Those who claim that they support the Trump administration on moral or religious reasons should think twice.
The article in the Daily Item carried the headline: “U.S. ends life-saving food aid for millions.” It raises profound ethical questions. The story reports that the Trump administration has abruptly ended funding for the U.N. World Food Program, which distributes emergency food to people in the world’s most desperate places – war zones, famine-stricken regions, refugee camps.
According to the WFP, “this could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation.”
And for what? The amount the U.S. was spending on USAID before Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency locked its doors was a miniscule portion of the total federal budget, less than half of one percent. The amount spent on the World Food Program received even less.
At the same time, the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans are pushing massive new tax cuts, which will cost roughly 1,000 times more than what the administration cut from the World Food Program. The Trump tax cuts would disproportionately benefit large corporations and billionaires.
The Trump administration’s policy is as simple as that – let the poor to starve so the ultra-rich can pay less in taxes. Who would possibly believe that’s morally acceptable?
Pat Piper
Lewisburg, PA
Daily Item, Letter to the Editor