To the editor:
County residents need weather reports! DOGE ordered indiscriminate staff cuts at the National Weather Service. County farmers were depending on grants and contracts from USAID. We have neighbors fighting cancer and other deadly diseases, but DOGE is micromanaging the National Institute of Health, disrupting treatments and research that could find cures. In June high school seniors graduate, many starting college. The main conduit of their financial aid is the FAFSA, administered by the soon to be eliminated Department of Education County businesses that depend on tourism need a busy summer season to make a profit. Who will visit when Sleeping Bear Park staffing is in peril, tariffs are raising prices, and our president is picking fights with other nations, even our good neighbor Canada? We brag about our beautiful lakes and the promise of a clean environment, but DOGE is gutting the EPA and the Forest Service.
VA and SSA staff are being fired indiscriminately. Our veterans have all earned their benefi ts! Thirty-four percent of our population is over 65. Some think that Medicaid is “just for poor people,” butitisamainfunding source for our nursing homes. The Institute of Libraries and Museums, also on the chopping block, supports our local libraries and the inter-library loan system.
These illegal and ill considered orders betray a lack of understanding about what our tax dollars fund and how our government works. It’s time to demand that Congress stops this madness! Susan W. Och Lake Leelanau
