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Human cost of Trump’spolicies is unknown
Americans across the country aren’t fully aware and aren’t seeing coverage of hundreds of demonstrations everywhere, every day, across the nation, in response to the mass firings and U.S. agencies closing around the country, many in Washington, D.C.
While Donald Trump and Elon Musk tear down our country and spit at our values, people all over the world suffer as food and medicine sit in ports. Congress isn’t doing anything.
Fired civil servants have stories to tell about the real cost of losing a job with the federal government. There’s no money for rent or a mortgage payment. There’s a couple facing foreclosure since both were fired. A career civil servant, now in his 60s, has to look for a job, with slim prospects at his age.
Americans need to see the human impact losing a job has on a person and a family.
Deborah MicklusAtascadero
Taxpayers shouldcheer efforts of DOGE
I’ve enjoyed reading all the panicked “the sky is falling” DOGE criticisms. Democrats often claim they support eliminating waste, fraud and abuse until someone actually tries to do it. Currently, some claim there is no real evidence, but their eyes must be closed.
A Government Accountability Office report estimated the “federal government could lose between $233 and $521billion to fraud.” The Labor Department inspector general estimated at least $191 billion in improper pandemic unemployment payments. This is just scratching the surface of our $35 trillion budget deficit.
Then we have the whining over the elimination of USAID with the lament that foreign aid is being axed. What really is happening is that aid will be administered by the State Department like it had been in the past, and likely managed more strategically and responsibly.
Every taxpayer should cheer eliminating the fat that clearly exists throughout the government bureaucracy.
Henry RissierHollister
Musk’s firings areimperiling government
In the early days of television, TV receivers were very expensive. A businessman named Earl “Madman” Muntz made his fortune by having his engineers design a TV, then begin removing components, piece by piece, until the TV stopped working. He then restored the last piece and sold his TV sets for far less than his competitors.
Today we have “Madman” Elon Musk doing the same thing to our government. He and his minions are firing tens of thousands of federal workers with no real regard for the critical functioning of the people’s government.
If a TV set fails, no big deal. If our government and its many vital functions fail, we will be unable to safeguard our people or resist foreign enemies currently cheering on our self-inflicted destruction.
Ed TaubMountain View
Internment comparisondoesn’t hold up
Re: “Trump’s orders are a reminder of WWII Japanese internment” (Page A8, Feb. 16).
In his article, James Purcell attempts to compare President Roosevelt’s internment of Japanese-American citizens after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 with President Trump’s current campaign to return the millions of foreigners who have illegally entered our nation to their countries of origin, as he promised to the American people that he would right before they reelected him as our president last year.
Purcell’s comparison fails because: (a) the persons who were interned during WWII were legal residents of America who were American citizens or had properly obtained a green card when they legally entered our country; (b) internees are not deportees; and (c) it is not racist for our president to finally, at long last, enforce the democratically enacted immigration laws which secure our nation.
John HaggertySanta Clara
DOGE’s recklessnessa sign of ineptitude
Re: “Dismissed nuclear bomb specialists are recalled” (Page A4, Feb. 15).
It seems the reckless Department of Government Efficiency needs its own Department of Government Efficiency.
First, the Small Business Administration fires some workers, then sends them a message saying it was a mistake, before another message saying they were, in fact, terminated.
Second, laying off nuclear energy specialists, realizing it was a mistake and then wanting to rehire them — this is not the formula to Make America Great Again. This is a giant breach of security, as bad as stealing top-secret documents and storing them in your unlocked bathroom. I’ll bet Elon Musk is more careful running his own companies.
We should change the acronym to IDOGE, the Inept Department of Government Efficiency.
Thomas RudolphBrisbane
Video is an attackon immigrants’ humanity
The White House’s “ASMR” deportation video on X was appalling. The video showed immigrants being prepared to be deported and it was uploaded as “ASMR,” suggesting it should induce a pleasant feeling. But there was nothing pleasant about it.
This post was dehumanizing and completely inappropriate. People should not be desensitized to such content, much less celebrate it. It is infuriating to see human beings — people just like you and me — chained up as if they were animals. The treatment of immigrants at the hands of the government is a slap in the face to all the hardworking immigrants who have contributed to this country.
Americans should be outraged and disturbed by what our government considers acceptable to post on social media. Normalizing these kinds of views makes people more susceptible to radical and dehumanizing ideologies. When we accept the mistreatment of immigrants, we chip away at our own humanity.
Yulisa SanchezSan Jose