In a day and age when the United States is one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, why aren’t we being afforded what this wealth could easily bring us?

Healthcare, education and housing should be a right in the U.S., but we accept a status quo that says we do not deserve these things. The sad thing is if we simply took some money out of our massively bloated defense budget, we could afford our citizens these benefits that would undoubtedly make life better for ourselves.

In 2014, public colleges collected $58 billion in tuition. This year, President Donald Trump is looking to increase our military budget by $54 billion.

Of course, Trump and his Republican-controlled Congress are cutting spending in nearly every other facet of government to pay for this increase, including the health-care sector where Paul Ryan’s new plan would leave 24 million people uninsured, while delivering a tax break to the extremely wealthy.

In a world where our military already spends more money than the next seven top-spenders combined, why should there be any increase at all? Why are we delivering tax breaks to the wealthiest people in this nation when so many are hungry, uninsured or homeless? Why can we not use this money to improve our citizen’s quality of life? 

In my mind, America is all about asking questions. It’s time to start asking our representatives these questions, from the local level all the way to the federal level. Go to town hall meetings, go to public forums, call your representative’s office and start asking: Why can’t we have health care for all? Why can’t we have tuition free college? We, as United States citizens, deserve these rights, and it is time we start acting like it.

Zac Breitbach is a member of the College Democrats, contact him at [email protected].