The proposal to spend $1.8 billion on a compensation fund for people supposedly “wronged” by the Biden administration — including Jan. 6, 2021 insurrectionists — should alarm every taxpayer. With criteria that remain vague and politically malleable, it looks less like justice and more like an open invitation to drain the U.S. Treasury.

Even more troubling is the provision to bar the Internal Revenue Service from audits of the president and his family. No administration — Republican or Democratic — should be allowed to exempt itself from the basic financial scrutiny required of all people who live in the United States. Oversight is the backbone of public trust.

At a time when essential services face cuts and rural communities struggle for resources, the federal government should not be fast-tracking a massive payout paired with a shield against accountability. Any lawmaker who supports this travesty owes us a straight-faced explanation.

Elizabeth Nitzel
Farmingdale