Two of The Telegraph’s front page headlines (Dec. 17) – “Ayotte tells vets she will fight to avoid cuts” and “Walton’s wealth equals total of bottom 42%” – is a story of America’s political priorities. These two headlines highlight the widening gap between top 1 percent and the rest of American and our junior senator’s priorities in the budget battles. The federal budget is about priorities.

To find spending cuts to replace veterans’ COLA cuts, Sen. Kelly Ayotte said: “the federal government could save twice this amount if it restricted eligibility for food stamps.” The Department of Agriculture’s statistics for New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District show that, of the households receiving food stamps, 80 percent had one or more people working and 70 percent were either under 18 or over 60. Republicans want to cut food stamps for the working poor and benefits for veterans, but not farm subsidies for wealthy farmers or tax loopholes for corporations.

The Waltons own 50 percent of Wal-Mart stock, a corporation that pays such low wages that many of their workers need food stamps and Medicaid to survive. This is a form of government subsidy to a wealthy corporation. Why should taxpayers subsidize the Walton family that has more wealth than the bottom 42 percent of Americans?

This is Sen. Ayotte’s profile in political courage: Cut food stamps for the working poor with kids and seniors, but propose nothing to reduce government subsidies to wealthy corporations. These two headlines in The Telegraph are about American politics and priorities today.

Bob Bettilyon

Hollis

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