Columnist Jay Ambrose refers to Social Security and Medicare as “entitlement” programs (“To fix the debt, fix entitlements,” Feb. 15). This is a smear of hardworking Americans who contribute to these programs.

Ambrose’s argument seems to be that benefits should be cut because the federal government has used trillions of Social Security dollars. Rather than hold government accountable to repay them, the GOP solution is to cut benefits.

Ambrose lavishes praise for the GOP tax cut that most economists believe will increase the federal deficit even more. That’s because the tax cuts reduce payments by corporations and the wealthiest Americans most.

Even worse, Ambrose is silent about the flat wages Americans have experienced for decades. Corporations were sitting on record-breaking profits before the tax cuts, but workers saw little return.

This is hardly the party of family values. But we knew that simply by looking at Donald Trump’s broken moral compass.