The Trump administration is busy on so many fronts that it is hard to focus on a single issue or even a few related issues. This is especially true with the “Great Big Beautiful Bill,” 1,000 pages long containing numerous unrelated provisions. Hopefully, the Senate will find the courage to stop this bill from moving forward in its current form.

Already, some forty government agencies have been shuttered or reduced and tens of thousands employees laid off and their lives upended. These agencies were created out of an established need, staffed by people with specific areas of expertise, and they house important relevant information, all paid for by our tax dollars.

Throughout my forty-plus years of working for the public, I never complained about the percentage that was taken from my paycheck and those of my employees. That money was going to fund our government. I was confident that our government was there to serve me and our communities, making life better directly or indirectly by having the best informed and most dedicated people working on the concerns of the day. Call me naive, but I still believe that this was true.

Until now. The Trump administration, following the guidelines of Project 2025 and with the gleeful assistance of Elon Musk and his groupies as well as the newly appointed cabinet members, are systematically destroying all that my tax dollars, and yours, paid for over decades. And they are not even saving money but are actually increasing the national debt by several trillions.

If this continues – and I think it will only get worse – we will be left with a gutted government that is unable to provide up-to-date services and information. The costs to cover what has been lost cannot be made up at the state and local levels.

President Trump and his friends and family do not need the services the US government has been providing and they do not care about those of us who do. “We the people” paid for it through our taxes while they found ways to avoid paying their share. Now, they behave as though this same government is their very own candy jar. Soon they will have golf courses all over the world and a Riviera of the Middle East in Gaza – and they will be able to fly around in a “Great Big Beautiful Airplane.”

That’s not what I paid taxes for – how about you?

SUSAN WAGGONER

Mifflinburg

Submitted by email