Rich Republican politicians cannot imagine themselves living from check to check, always afraid there won’t be enough money to pay the rent, trying to get to the food bank without a car, needing to work two low-paying jobs, lacking money for winter coats for their children or spending much of their earnings on child care.

They cannot imagine being unable to afford higher education and knowing they’ll never inherit a house or money from their parents. Those politicians have no understanding of being disabled or elderly and knowing they have only Social Security and Medicare to keep them alive.

Republicans have been trying to destroy Social Security and Medicare ever since Democrats created those vital programs. Already, members of the new Congress have been working on plans to cut the ACA (Obamacare), cut Social Security, and use their new “dynamic scoring” system to help disguise still more tax cuts for the rich.

Most voters, including three-quarters of registered Republicans, want to increase Social Security benefits and pay for this increase by requiring millionaires pay into the program at the same rate as everyone else (“lifting the cap”).

According to Americans for Tax Fairness, corporate tax rates are the lowest they’ve been in 60 years. Billionaires pay less than half the tax rate they paid in the 1950s, yet the Republicans keep giving more handouts to the rich without caring one bit about the poor and middle class people who elected them.

Can someone explain why we keep electing those people?

Ellen Field, New Gloucester