I watched the news conference yesterday. I was deeply disappointed. You talk of shared sacrifice. Who is sharing the sacrifice of the unemployed who lost their jobs due to poor decisions by bankers. The banks and hedge fund managers were bailed out. Many workers and home owners sacrificed their jobs and their homes. Where was the sharing? What did the upper 10% of Americans sacrifice? Let me know please.
Now there is all this talk about social security. Social security has a separate earned income tax that while filed on the same form as other income taxes, is not the same as other income taxes. Social security is also a regressive earned income tax. Capital gains, dividends, and interest are not taxed for social security. Also there is a huge social security surplus. So tell me again why those receiving social security should share the sacrifice.
Just like social security Medicare has a separate revenue stream. Why should those receiving Medicare share in the sacrifice? Is money today coming from the general revenue stream paying for Medicare? I think not.
Let's move on to Medicaid. Do you want people to sacrifice their health. Should the poor and the indigent face earlier death because the debt is so high. Perhaps the poor should be left on hospitals' door steps to suffer and die? Is this really what you want?
So I ask, why don't you tell the American people exactly what republicans are asking for? The republicans want those who can least afford it to lose income. They want people to suffer so that the rich do not have to pay taxes. Tell the truth and the republicans will think its hell!!
Let''s talk debt for a second. The debt measured in constant value dollars is lower today than following WW II. If you consider the debt today and 1950 in today's dollars or in 1950 dollars, the debt is much smaller today. Also to consider the spending today versus the spending during WW II in 1950 dollars, the spending today is much smaller. For all this talk, and it is just talk, neither the spending nor the debt are that high. You sir need to say this. You need to change the framework of the debate.
Now to my final point on the economy and the debt. You need to admit a small mistake. The stimulus package was neither large enough nor long enough. You need to point out that the stimulus stopped the ever increasing unemployment, but was not large enough to stimulate increasing employment. You need to say thank heavens unemployment is not increasing dramatically, and that if that had continued then the deficit would be much larger today than it is. You need to say you had hoped the banks and the rich would invest in the country but they haven't. To counter their lack of investment, the government must invest in projects necessary to strengthen the country. Yes admit an error and that you want to fix the error. Have the audacity to admit you made a mistake, that you are human.
This will change the framing of the problem. This will cause huge argument, but eventually maybe after the 2012 elections with large majorities in congress you can set the country and the world back on a path towards economic recovery.
Finally a word on global warming. If the world is not hit by an asteroid, then global warming will kill large numbers of humans. Republicans talk about the debt we are leaving to our children, you need to talk about the death we are leaving our children. It is that simple. Not to address global warming on a local, state, national and international scale is to end human life as we know it, and perhaps to end all human life on the planet. The people need to know. The debt and the economy are small potatoes compared to global warming. Again, I expect no action until democrats win in 2012, but you need to be clear that there will be action and that the choice is death for our children or change.
Sincerely,
Lawrence A. Welsch