Patrick Wood: Providing resources isn't 'wasting' money, it's investing in people

To The Daily Sun,

Over a million people in the United States died from COVID between 2020 and 2022. The impact on our nation is still being felt in many ways including an over stressed health and hospital system, overworked and exhausted social workers, teachers and students trying to recognize and overcome the losses in education, employers and employees still figuring out how to handle office time versus working from home, and commercial and residential development and buildings being underutilized or over-priced.

Now the director of communications for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is telling us that the resources provided to the states to help deal with this major loss and its impacts must be returned to the federal government. In effect, the Trump administration is telling us “to get over it” and give back “their” money.

But, it is not “their” money — it is our money, allocated to us by our elected representatives and senators. Providing resources to people in need is not “wasting” money — it is investing it in our most valuable resource, our people. This is basically stealing the loaf of bread from the starving family.

Donald Trump and his band of multi-millionaire cronies might not need these funds, but those of us trying to survive in these turbulent times do.

To paraphrase President Ronald Reagan, “Mr. Trump, get your hands off our money.”

Patrick Wood

Laconia