My representative in California's first district is Mike Thompson. He is a democrat and moderately liberal, so I'm urging him to keep up the fight while also telling him that his constituents are not fooled by the smoke and mirrors currently masquerading as a "budget crisis." Here's the email I just sent Congressman Thompson:
Dear Congressman Thompson--
What in the hell is going on in Congress these days? Why are DEMOCRATS talking about modifying Social Security and Medicare? Social Security? Social security has never contributed one dime to the federal deficit. It is fully solvent in its present state until the late 2030s. It is not part of the deficit problem and never was. Congress-- and the President-- are using it as a smoke screen to hide the REAL causes of the federal budget deficit.
Those causes include several unnecessary and immoral wars, unsustainable tax cuts for the wealthy, and utterly out of control military and related spending. Tax reform alone would yield more than enough revenue to solve the manufactured budget "crisis" if taxes were returned to, say, 1960s levels, when America was demonstrably an economic powerhouse.
Tax the rich. Problem solved! Or at least ask them, if lowering their taxes stimulates "job creation," where all the jobs are at a time when their taxes are lower than anytime in the last 60 years and have been that way for nearly a decade? Where are the jobs? And why does Congress participate so eagerly in the fiction that cutting their taxes does anything except concentrate wealth further into the hands of the already wealthy?
In all seriousness, Congressman Thompson-- we need responsible leadership in Washington, not these sorts of fiscal follies. Congress should be ashamed of itself, as should the President!
Hands OFF Social Security! Hands OFF Medicare! Don't reduce the deficit on the backs of the poor, elderly, and sick. Stand up for what's right-- don't let the media or the juvenile tea party republicans dictate the national discourse and turn it toward lies and misdirection. Social Security is not part of the deficit problem and modifying it will do NOTHING to shrink the deficit.
I urge you to NOT support any "debt reduction plan," whether proposed by republicans, democrats, or the president, that scape-goats social security or Medicare instead of the REAL causes of the federal deficit. Further, I urge you to support REAL "shared sacrifice" by requiring the wealthy to pay their fair share to maintain the American dream for everyone in the U.S.
Respectfully yours,
mike_c
on edit-- Interestingly, his mail server seems DOG slow this afternoon....
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