Letter to Senator Portman

Dear Senator Portman,

I am writing to express my support of cutting the defense budget rather than cutting social programs, especially Social Security and Medicare.

We rely on Social Security and Medicare–all my husband’s life, he had to find work as a contractor and hence never could afford health insurance. It was such a relief to us when he finally got on Medicare. Indeed, we had to pay for cancer treatment completely out of pocket and it wiped out much of our savings. My husband has been in severe pain for years, and now he can finally get the hip replacement he needs because he is finally on Medicare.

That such a system is being considered for cuts, even if the cuts would happen in the future and to younger people, is something that hits close to home. We’d like these benefits to be available for all people.

The defense budget of the United States is greater than that of the defense budgets of all the other nations of the world combined. This is a prime area for cutting. Please invest the defense budget in our own infrastructure and U.S. citizens’ health and wealth instead of defense.

Thank you!

Senator Portman can be contacted here: http://portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form and his toll-free phone number in Columbus is 1-800-205-6446.