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USAID cuts a good
start to reduce spending
Re: “Closing USAID was first a Clinton-era idea” (Page A7, Feb. 13).
Today, I read the letters to the editor about the “terrible demise of USAID.”
I hope those letter writers and others read the Mark Thiessen opinion in the Mercury News. Thiessen clearly states the history of the USAID agency and the lack of oversight. Clearly, it is completely legal to move USAID into the State Department where there will be oversight and direction of USAID.
Some of USAID’s expenditures do help poor nations with food aid and medical vaccines, and they should continue.
I hope most Americans can understand that our federal government has overspent, and we now spend nearly $900 billion of taxpayer money, every year, just paying the annual interest on our $36 trillion debt, and that is expected to rise.
Therefore, it is obvious that many government programs must be cut in order to stop overspending.
Brian McCormick
San Jose
Sweeping changes at
USAID not a new idea
Re: “Trump’s dismantling of USAID immoral” and “Congress cannot allow end of USAID” (Page A6, Feb. 13) and “Closing USAID was first a Clinton-era idea” (Page A7, Feb. 13).
Interesting is the juxtaposition of two letters to the editor and a commentary on the very next page about dismantling and restructuring USAID by Marc A. Thiessen. It shows that we common folk typically do not have the experience or firsthand knowledge of many issues relating to our federal and state governments.
A perfect example — Thiessen’s commentary — uncovers the history and issues involved in trying to dismantle and restructure USAID going back to the days of former President Biden (as senator) and former President Clinton.
Now I am all in for providing necessary aid to starving and oppressed people in foreign countries. What I do not support is government waste and fraud which we all know, or have some sense of, occurs on a daily basis in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento. The Trump administration appears to be trying to institute a government policy that has been kicked around for decades.
Dan Casas
Saratoga
Savings at federal
agencies will go to rich
No one mentions that Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s examination of our government’s agencies can be done without closing them down first.
Second, if you think the savings will be used to reduce our debt, think again; they are just trying to justify huge tax giveaways to the richest people in the world.
If this is OK with you, hold on for an America that you won’t recognize or be proud of.
Rich Lee
San Jose
Lamar’s message was
bigger than music
Re: “Kendrick Lamar does ‘Not Like Us’ — yet with one major change — at Super Bowl” (Feb. 9).
Hip-hop music is one of the most essential aspects of Black culture in the United States, and the powerful messages that these songs can communicate are not to be ignored.
Hip-hop songs are a way to speak from the soul to the listener, and Kendrick Lamar used the genre as a medium to speak out about the oppression that Black people continue to face, and as a call not to forget the origins of our country — we would not be the country we are today if not for the contribution of African Americans during the construction of our union.
As Lamar states aptly: This is bigger than the music.
Erika Bodoh
San Jose
To save money, DOGE
should start at Pentagon
The Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch was recently fired by the Trump administration, along with more than a dozen other federal agency IGs. A year ago, IG Storch reported that the military overshot its spare parts needs by nearly $1 billion. Couple that with the distressing fact that the Pentagon recently failed its seventh audit in a row.
Undaunted, Senate Republicans are proposing to increase the military budget by $150 billion.
OIG oversees and reviews the efficiency, effectiveness, financial health and safety of the agencies they serve to ensure their effective operation by preventing and detecting fraud, waste and abuse, a role that Elon Musk’s DOGE claims it is tasked with. If Musk and DOGE were truly interested in government efficiency, they would first start at the Pentagon.
Warren Seifert
Gilroy
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Conflicts of interest at
drive Musk lawlessness
The lawlessness continues with an unelected billionaire in charge of our government infrastructure in the interest of protecting his government-funded projects from oversight. Over the last five years, Elon Musk has received $13 billion in federal government contracts; last year alone, he received $3.7 billion. Many of the Defense and NASA contracts he has received are classified so are not public. Donald Trump appears to be too lazy to govern, only showing up for photo ops.
Let’s not go back to a small government that serves the needs of the wealthy few, endangers us by rolling back safety regulations and leaves the majority of Americans working, paying taxes to benefit not all Americans but the few who already have so much and don’t pay taxes to contribute to our prosperity.
Mary Boyle
Sunnyvale
