Politicians feel beholden to vote the way their biggest and richest campaign donors want them to vote. More and more Republican donors are billionaires who are survival-of-the-fittest social Darwinists who would love to see all social safety-net programs that help the middle and lower classes be abolished. They also believe in a hyper-individualism and a hyper-libertarianism.

Thus, if the Republicans in Congress could not say “no” to passing new social programs to help struggling Americans, they would be mute!

Stewart B. Epstein

Rochester, N.Y.

The writer is a former Squirrel Hill resident who taught at West Virginia and Slippery Rock universities.

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