If Wikipedia is to be believed, we have 59 military bases in Germany, 120 in Italy, and 103 in Japan. The U.S. defeated these countries in World War II, and helped rebuild them after the war.

A majority of Americans surely would agree that we no longer need to operate all of these bases in countries that we defeated almost 70 years ago.

America spends more than the rest of the world combined on so-called “defense,” which really amounts to worldwide policing at our own expense.

While many are screaming and hollering about the Affordable Care Act, with some extremists even calling for the president to be impeached or to be arrested for murder(?), it should be noted that Germany, Italy and Japan all have national health care and we do not.

So it is okay for us to pay for the defense of countries that don’t need our help, but it is wrong for us to provide health care for our own citizens?

We need to revise our priorities as a country.

Richard S. Whiting, Auburn