Nevada's results, upon further review

CNN, Fox News as well as other cable and TV news outlets have spent hours analyzing which Democratic candidate won and lost the Nevada caucus. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 46% share of the votes, far ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden’s second-place 19.6%, was described by Newsday as a “resounding victory” [“Sanders rolls to win in Nevada,” News, Feb. 23]. I thought so, too, until I took a closer look.

The Nevada secretary of state lists 610,911 Nevadans as “active” or registered Democrats in January 2020, but only 96,108 participated in Saturday’s caucus. That’s less than 16% of eligible Democrats, and these are likely the most committed, ideological, opinionated and engaged Nevada Democrats.

What about the 514,803 who didn’t attend a caucus? We really don’t know. So it’s on to South Carolina.

Richard Koubek,

Dix Hills

This is where we can cut U.S. aid

I’d like to agree somewhat with the letter “Cutting foreign aid helps our country” [Feb. 18] that many American taxpayers can be gullible. There can be appropriate restructuring of foreign aid, though. Cutting aid to countries — President Donald Trump held and then released aid to Ukraine — can actually harm America and the free world.

The new Trump budget proposes cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Childrens’ Health Insurance Program and public housing, among other programs. Those cuts are all a loss for poor and middle-class people, who have seen minimal increases in salaries, as opposed to huge tax breaks to the rich. We, taxpayers, now pay $650 a room per night to house the Secret Service and $2,000 for their golf cart rentals  to protect the president and his family at his own resorts. How this financial debacle is allowed to continue is incomprehensible.

Cuts in foreign aid?  How about cuts in U.S. aid to the Trump Organization?

Sherry Eckstein,

Huntington