To the editor:

The federal food stamp/SNAP program has been cut by $5 billion, leaving 47 million poor people – half of whom are children – 16 fewer “thrifty” meals each month per household of three.

Meanwhile, in sprawling mansions so huge that they can be seen from space, billionaires enjoy abundant caviar and fine wine.

Why are there no cuts to the $1.5 trillion F-35 fighter plane boondoggle?

Obsolete before it even took to the air, it’s such a bad performer that it can’t fly in inclement weather. The project should be scrapped, with its cost diverted to vital human needs instead.

Imagine, also, how much could be saved by closing just some of our military bases overseas. How about raising revenue through a small Robin Hood tax on Wall Street speculation?

And couldn’t the 1 percent elite make do with slightly shorter limousines and yachts?

After all, didn’t their wealth largely come from appropriating the fruit of American workers’ increasingly under-compensated daily labor in the first place?

Dennis Rahkonen

Superior, Wis.