Last night I posted a diary about my email to one of Gary Peters' staffers (MI-09), who I happen to be friends with. Like so many here, I'm deeply disappointed (aka pissed) about the Dems punting the upper-class tax cut issue until after election, and especially about the 30+ House Dems who sent a letter specifically pushing to extend all of the tax cuts.
Well, earlier today I received a response, which, I'm happy to say, has partially addressed my concerns (but not fully). Below the fold is my original email and my friends' response on behalf of the campaign (I made sure to confirm that this is an official response, not just my friends' off-the-cuff opinion):
Dear [STAFFER],
I hope you don't mind my writing you regarding this, but I feel strongly enough about this that I wanted to contact Rep. Peters as directly as possible, and I know you're a campaign staffer.
I knew from the start that he isn't a far-left progressive type, and that's fine; it's not a far-left district. Furthermore, I've been happy with most of his votes and actions since taking office, including many of the "big-ticket" votes such as the healthcare bill, stimulus, cap & trade and bank reform bill.
However, it's my understanding that he's coming out staunchly against allowing the deficit-busting Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire, and in fact even wants to extend the capital gains tax cuts.
Note: I included the following sentence in a follow-up to the staffers' response below, but it makes more sense in the context of my first email so I've moved it up here:
The original letter, sent to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer and signed by Rep. Peters, gave no specific timeline; it simply asked to "maintain things as they are in the short term", which could mean a day, a year or a decade depending on your point of view.
Now, personally, I think all of Bush's tax cuts should expire, but I can certainly understand keeping the middle class bracket in place. However, I just wanted to convey my extreme disappointment with his stance on keeping the high-end cuts in place.
This is a pretty major issue for me. As you may know, I donated far more than I could afford to get him into office in 2008, I've been a solid supporter of his since, and I was even planning a house party fundraiser for him earlier this year (it was cancelled for unrelated reasons). I've also donated a lesser amount to his campaign this year.
However, his stand on this tax cut issue is important enough to me that I simply can't bring myself to donate any more money to him for the rest of the campaign. If he's going to align himself with the $250K+ crowd, then they can finance his campaign as well.
I'll still be voting for him, of course; as I said, I've been happy with most of his performance, I like him as a person and lord knows I can't stomach the idea of being "represented" by Rocky Raczkowski. But if he (or any other Dems in Congress) can't figure out why there's such an "enthusiasm gap" between the parties this year, it's precisely due to crap like this.
In short, if he's taking this position because he thinks it will help him get reelected, I guarantee that it's gonna lose him as many votes as it gains (and frankly, I can't fathom it gaining him any anyway...anyone in the upper tax bracket who supports him now isn't gonna vote against him just over this issue, and anyone who was gonna vote against him is still going to anyway).
If, on the other hand, he's taken this position because he honestly thinks it's the right thing for the country (ie, that it's going to help create jobs), then I have a simple question for him:
When these tax cuts went into effect 10 years ago, the unemployment rate was around 5%, the federal budget was balanced and the national debt was around $6 trillion.
After 10 years of the Bush tax cuts, unemployment is at almost 10%, the deficit is over a trillion per year and the debt has more than doubled.
I'd appreciate it if you could forward this on to Rep. Peters. Please don't take any of this personally, and thanks for letting me get this off my chest.
Respectfully,
[Brainwrap]
THEIR RESPONSE:
Thank you for the message. Congressman Peters believes that the economy is fragile and wants a temporary extension until next year. He wants tax cuts for the middle class to be permanent and after a year of the extension of the bush tax cuts, he thinks they should be eliminated.
So...the good news is that Peters does NOT favor extending the $200K+ tax cuts indefinitely or even long-term; he's clarified (to me at least) that he only wants them extended one more year, presumably until the economy stabilizes a bit. He does, however, favor extending the middle-class cuts indefinitely, which most people on both sides of the aisle seem to want, so I'd certainly expect him to vote for that if it ever actually comes to a vote.
The bad news is that he didn't make this clear in the letter that he (and 30+ other Dems) sent to Pelosi in such a high-profile manner, and I think all this does is muddy the waters on the Dems message.
Anyway, as I said in my email, I've generally been quite pleased with Peters so far; he's not a true Blue Dog and has been fairly progressive on most other high-profile bills.
So...I'm willing to give him a pass on this one.
My diary last night gained a bit of interest, so I figured I should follow up with the official campaign response.
Your thoughts?