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When you see your house on fire, you need to yell, and do everything you can to stop the fire, save the house, and save the people inside.

Our house is on fire. The House of Representatives and our own Congressman Finstad voted to pass a budget bill that will result in extreme cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans programs.

Please understand, it doesn’t matter what party you belong to or whom you voted for: no one expected or asked for this.

Musk has already illegally cut programs like Head Start, the Department of Education, the CDC, Meals on Wheels, Lutheran Social Services and Habitat for Humanity. All of these cuts are horrible. But Musk won’t stop there.

There’s an old story in which a bank robber was asked, “Why do you rob banks?” His answer, “Because that’s where the money is.”

In order to pay for the big tax cuts that Trump and Musk want, they have to find the money, and the Social Security fund, our money, is where the money is. They want it, they need it for the tax cut and they will get it unless we stop them. They already have plans in motion to cut 7,000 staff workers, and cut phone service, and close Social Security offices. That’s just the beginning. Martin O’Malley, the former Social Security commissioner, is warning that these cuts could break Social Security systems. They want to delay, disrupt and deny payments of benefits in an effort to eliminate Social Security altogether.

And Congressman Finstad is doing nothing to protect us. He won’t meet with voters or have a town hall to explain himself. He isn’t doing his job.

It is time for all of us to contact Congressman Finstad and tell him to protect Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits.

His Washington phone number is: 202-225-2472.

Mary Hinnenkamp
Albert Lea