The Sept. 30 Alpena News contained a letter by one of its loyal Democrat subscribers with the title ‘Shutting down the government is not acceptable’. The letter noted that a shutdown would affect the Agriculture Department’s SNAP and WIC programs, eliminate funding for Title X grants for ‘family planning’ clinics (abortion clinics), cut Head Start programs, freeze childcare assistance, and cut Title I grants to schools serving low income or ‘disadvantaged’ background students. Another Continuing Resolution (CR) postponed any responsible action on a budget for 45 days.

I looked through my booklet that contains the text of the Constitution of the United States and I could find not a word in the Constitution about these programs. I did however find Amendment X which states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. Simply put, if it isn’t stated as a federal government function in the Constitution it is up to the individual States or the people in those states to provide funding.

Our federal government no longer has budgets as most of us define them. Congress is addicted to CRs and omnibus budgets. We are $33 trillion in debt and there is no sign that our politicians will stop growth in that debt. If we started paying $1 billion per day toward reducing that debt, it would take over 90 years to eliminate it. We are saddling our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with that debt and the misery that will come with it. We don’t want to face it ourselves and that is selfish.

We could eliminate 75% of federal government spending and see virtually no negative impact on our daily lives. It’s time to say ‘STOP’ to out-of-control spending.

MIKE LEOW,

Rogers City