Ed, I see the American government has spent billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why can’t we divert one billion dollars, give it to the United States of America, to all the states, let them divvy it up to get better housing, get our budgets back in order, and help our poor? I can’t understand why our country doesn’t help our citizens first before they help other people. Help our people first, not those overseas. They could not care less about us.

Puzzled

Originally, the federal government’s prime function was to protect the states from foreign threat, not to become this giant monster that taxes us to death and then redistributes our wealth in our supposed best interests. The question is whether the current wars are, indeed, protecting us from foreign threat. —Ed. Note