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How to spend $200 billion

Lake County Leader | UPDATED 1 month AGO
| June 4, 2026 12:00 AM

What would you do with $200 billion?

On April 26, I asked this question to our U.S. Senators and Representatives: “The US spends more on military than the next largest military budgets combined and 3x China, the second largest spender. Trump is asking for an additional $200B to offset the $29B expended on Iran. If you could do anything you wanted with that $200B, what would you do. Give me a rough breakdown.”

They could have responded lowered taxes, funded infrastructure improvements, supported health care affordability, education or farmers suffering from the outfall of the Iran war.

Senator Sheehy responded that “… I will keep your comments in mind as Congress continues to consider the appropriations.” None of the others responded.

The silence from our elected representatives tells me they really don’t care much about Montanans or addressing the needs of the nation.

– Jim Whaley, Polson