A couple of issues are on my mind as 2013 comes to a close.

The LePage administration demonstrates what I recall my parents referring to as being “penny wise and pound foolish.” DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew spent close to a million dollars of taxpayer money to hire someone from Rhode Island to study the welfare system. A huge waste of taxpayer money.

I am totally offended by the headline and the content of the column by Cal Thomas (Dec. 15) “Liberals spout message of greed, envy.” He goes on about how liberals supposedly envy the rich and want their money for themselves. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Liberals do not focus their concerns on themselves; they are concerned about children going hungry, the homeless, those who loose their jobs or their homes, or have no health care, or are trying to get by on a minimum wage and raise a family.

The idea that tax breaks for the super rich will trickle down to the rest of us is ludicrous. It never has happened and it certainly isn’t happening now. The billionaires who own Walmart pay starvation wages and we pay for their employees’ health care.

“A just society is one that feeds the hungry, that shelters the homeless, that heals the sick” — Rep. Alan Grayson, D- Fla.

Nancy Willard, Woodstock