Then you should tell him.
I haven't hesitated to write to the President and my Senators / representatives when I don't like something. Now I think that the President is finally on the right side of the policy debate on jobs and the deficit - so it's just as important to tell him to keep on going and not to back down.
President Obama,
Thank you for the proposals you have put on the table for a jobs program and deficit reduction. Our economic priorities have to be good jobs, fair taxes and a robust safety net for the millions of Americans that are still suffering from the recession. I think you have your priorities right in these proposals.
Thank you also for holding firm and not backing away from a political fight. Your programs are worth fighting for. This is not the time to compromise on half measures that do more harm than good. The jobs bill has to pass in its entirety. So does the deficit plan. Tax increases are every bit as important as spending reductions – and maybe more so, since we have already cut taxes and spending with no revenue offsets in each of the economic compromises in the past few years.
I like to see negotiation, consensus and compromise. I think they almost always give a better result than unilateral action. However, they are only tools to achieve good policy, not an end in themselves – and they require honest men of good faith on both sides of the table. From the day you took office the GOP has made it clear that they will not negotiate and will not compromise. Their stated goal is to defeat you in 2012 and nothing else matters to them – including the economic disaster they created and the harm they have done to millions of the unemployed and uninsured. That is not the recipe for negotiation, consensus or compromise
The GOP economic policies of less regulation and lower taxes are proven failures. “Trickle down” economics don’t trickle down – the wealth gap and income gap between the rich, the middle class and the poor are bigger today than at any time since the Depression. Less regulation hasn’t protected the economy, the environment or the middle class. Lower taxes don’t create jobs – corporate taxes especially are at a historic low level, yet unemployment is horribly high and not improving. Corporations have record profits and cash levels but are not hiring.
The GOP policies have failed. They don’t have a plan B. It’s time to reverse those policies.
Speaker Boehner has called your plan “class warfare”. It is no more class warfare than a rape victim fighting back against her rapist is assault. The middle class has been raped – just look at a few of the numbers:
• 14M unemployed, 9M part time for economic reasons and 3M marginally attached or discouraged and not in the labor force
• Real median household income down (2.3)% in 2010; (7.1)% lower than the peak reached in 1999
• 46M below the poverty level – highest rate since 1993, highest absolute level in 52 years
• 50M with no medical insurance
It’s time to focus on three economic priorities: good jobs, fair taxes and a robust safety net (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP, extended unemployment benefits, ….) for the millions of Americans that are still suffering from the recession. I think your jobs and deficit proposals start to do this. Thank you. Hold firm on these priorities – they are more important goals than compromise just for the sake of compromise.
Sincerely,