What will make us more secure? The House approved a budget resolution that would add $60 billion to the existing defense budget of $600 billion. This is just the first in a series of votes. It is not a done deal. This resolution proposed funds for the building of the border wall at $1.6 billion, while cutting the State Department by 10 percent, decreasing the Environmental Protection Agency, Medicaid and Medicare benefits, and SNAP (food stamps). Does this imbalance make us more secure?

Our country has a debt of $20 trillion, a debt accrued primarily from the cost of current and past wars. 37.5 percent of our tax dollars goes for defense. I endorse much needed support for our soldiers and veterans.

In our present budget we spend only two cents of each tax dollar for the prevention of war; the entire State Department budget, including the diplomatic corps and the U.S. Agency for International Development, support for the United Nations and other relationship-strengthening international institutions, and non-military aid to other countries. Does a 10 percent cut to the State Department make us more secure?

We should insist on maintaining the federal budget items that actually bring peace to our nation.

Edie Morren

Stonington