Billionaires must step up

To the editor,

According to the business magazine Forbes, in 2024, the U.S. was home to 902 billionaires. 

On July 17, the House of Representatives approved cuts of nearly $1.1 billion from public broadcasting services and about $8 billion from humanitarian foreign aid programs. 

Among the many other cuts in the Trump administration’s budget are a decrease of $49.1 billion from the U.S. Department of State; about $33 billion from the Department of Health and Human Services (which includes the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control); $45.5 billion from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (more than half its previous funding) and a cut of $2.46 billion from the Environmental Protection Agency. 

It is obvious that even a small number of the nation’s billionaires could easily contribute enough money to restore virtually all the cuts included in the current administration’s budget proposals.

Miriam Levine Helbok