Rep. Hillary Scholten only talks about tax dollars for libraries, but not for militarism and genocide

In a recent social media post, Rep. Hillary Scholten patted herself on the back by saying that she had brought back $6.5 million to West Michiganders so far in 2025.

What Rep. Scholten failed to mention was the fact that the $6.5 million was for specific projects like a new training facility for the Grand Rapids Fire Department and a new library in Rockford, Michigan. While libraries and resources for fire departments are a good thing, the $6.5 million that Scholten is bragging about does not come back to residents of West Michigan directly.

Another major omission from Rep. Scholten is how tax dollars from West Michigan are being used to pay for US militarism. According to the National Priorities Project, people who live in the 3rd Congressional District – Scholten’s district – are collectively paying $13,840 every hour in taxes for US militarism.

If we wanted to narrow this down to how much money Rep. Hillary Scholten has voted for to support the US sending weapons to Israel, then that amount of tax money that is coming from taxpayers in Grand Rapids is $13,263,526. This means that Grand Rapids taxpayers are funding $13,263,526 in weapons sales to Israel while it commits a genocide, which is more than double the amount of money that Rep. Scholten has brought back to West Michigan for projects that many of us will never benefit from.

Rep. Hillary Scholten not only hides this information from us, she continues to vote for the annual trillion dollar US military budget and she continues to vote in favor of massive US weapons sales to Israel, while the Israeli military commits genocide in Gaza and starves the Palestinian families that live there. Imagine how the $13,263,526 that leaves Grand Rapids to fund Israel’s genocide could be used to benefit people living in this community.