[Regarding “Speaking Out: Concerns About the Trump Administration Overwhelm Chuck Edwards’ Office Hours,” March 5, Xpress:]
We have to be concerned about the continued cuts to federal staffing and funding of critical services (Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, etc.). When you cut staff, you reduce the ability to implement programs. When you close offices in rural Western North Carolina, you prohibit accessibility of resources to the people.
Closing Social Security offices and U.S. Department of Agriculture offices in WNC makes it impossible for our communities to access programs that are meant to be available to them, in some cases critical financial programs that are meant to be there to sustain them.
What happened to “I’m not going to touch Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security”? When you close offices, terminate staff and reduce funding … you touch it! You make it unavailable to the community that it was intended for.
Once again, empty promises to the working people.
— George H. Pettus
Weaverville
