After reading nyceve's diary today, I was inspired to sit down and write a letter. I will be sending this letter to President Barack Obama, Sen. Lamar Alexander, Sen. Bob Corker, Rep. Jim Cooper, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Harry Reid.
With all of the shit that's happened in past eight years, there has been
at least one very profound and positive thing.
We the people are more connected and willing to ingage our elected officials. We communicate through blogs and internet news organizations
and we organize.
We need to be heard. We need to make our presence a force that cannot be denied. I rarely write diaries, and it's even more rare for me to compose a letter.
But, I'm jazzed today and on a tear, so here it is.
Dear Senator Alexander:
If you’ve looked around lately, you’ve probably noticed that things are getter more difficult. You may not see the depths of the damage from the recession/depression because you probably don’t run in the same circles with people who are losing their jobs, their health insurance, and their homes.
I’m self-employed. I work an average of 50 - 60 hours a week. My business is small, but, until recently, it was growing. Finally, after 10 long years of praying, sweating, waiting tables at night and running the flower business during the day, it was growing.
Then, our economy fell down the rabbit hole.
My business clients are having to cut back and flowers are a luxury.
My regular business is down and I’m wondering how I can continue to pay
my sub-prime loan and what I’ll do when the balloon payment comes due.
I get at least 5 robo calls a day from sleezy law offices in other states offering to help me "modify" my loan for a very high fee (No guarantees), or I can sign over the deed "temporarily".........These people are predators. Shouldn’t our Congress be looking into that?
I’m wondering how much longer I can continue to pay the $440. monthly premium on my Blue-Cross Blue Shield Individual policy for one person, with a $2,500. deductible and $3.500. out-of pocket per year. This policy has gone up from $175.00 per month to the $440.00 per month in 6 years. The highest percentage it has gone up in 1 year was 33%.
The lowest was 17%. I sat down and looked at all my basic expenses,
and realized they were up at least $5,000 since 2003. I’m not talking about luxuries here. I’m talking about insurances, heating, gasoline, phones, water, and have you personally shopped for groceries lately?
Most groceries are up at least 20-25% in just the
last year and a half. It’s so bad that some manufacturers are putting products in small containers and selling them for the same price they did for the larger amounts. You may
not have personally noticed, but your ice cream carton is smaller and so is your can of tuna and your peanut butter and............you get the picture?
I am only one. I am one of many. We are an army of people trying to do the right thing, work hard, make something of ourselves and our lives and we are fighting a losing battle.
You, and all the other members of our legislative body, and our President, and our Supreme Court are representatives of our democracy and the champions of our rights and welfare. No where in your oath of office did it say: "Uphold and defend the Corporation." "We the people", are the ones who will be paying for that 700 billion dollar corporate welfare scheme called TARP. Instead of using the monies to unfreeze our credit markets, these "patriots" used "our" money to prey on weaker banks and buy them up, and give huge bonuses to those "Masters of the Universe" who should have been fired, or be facing jail time
Our President, along with some wise people has proposed a stimulus package. He amended that stimulus package to have more "tax cuts" in order to appease the Republican minority and get some of their support. Well that worked out well.
The logic of more tax cuts escapes me, especially, when we are talking about tax cuts for people who already have lots of money. After all, didn’t tax cuts for the wealthy during a time of war contribute heftily to the deficit we now have?
By the way, tax cuts at the federal level lead to deficits at the state and local levels. So, the state and local governments raise taxes to offset the loss. These taxes are usually regressive and guess who gets the shaft? Services are cut. Guess who gets the shaft? Property taxes go up. Guess who gets the shaft? Corporations?, Not in Tennessee. Corporations get 40 year moratoriums on property taxes.
Now, that tax cut for me, will be $500. which comes out to $41.67 per month. If my health insurance policy increases by the lowest percent (17%), it will cost me an additional $74.80 per month this year. If it goes up by 33%, it will cost me an additional $145.20 per month! (Another $1,740. per year) You see where this is going? That tax cut is a joke for me. I’d rather not have it, if I could have a bill that truly represents the needs of all of us. I’d rather see the 3rd that’s marked for tax cuts go into creating jobs and technology that will spawn new industry and growth. I’d rather see the money go into improving our crumbling infrastructure. I’d like to see my republican senators, Sen. Alexander, and Sen. Corker, and my democratic congressman Jim Cooper focus on the task at hand. which is putting more people back to work and securing the social safety net.
In the midst of our current economic situation many of you will find it easy to say: "We can’t deal with health care now, it’s too expensive."
I’d like to again remind you that you serve at the pleasure of "We the People" and that you have some of the best health insurance on earth.
You have pensions and health insurance and a lot of other perks the
rest of us will never know. The time has come for all of you to find a
way to make affordable health care available to all of us. More and more
people are losing their jobs and more and more businesses are unable to afford health care for their employees, and more and more people are self-employed.
This will not go away. I expect everyone in Congress to behave like a
thinking, caring adult with a modicum of empathy and understanding.
I expect these "statesmen" to get it together and do what’s right, and
fix the health care crises in a way that does not involve petty political posturing or acquiescing to the will of insurance lobbyists.
My friend, Nyceve said it in such a poetic way, that I’d like to quote her:
"You have health insurance..
We don't.
We want what you have.
You work for us.
If we don't get what you have, we will take away your job."
As I said, "I am only one." But...."I am one of many." I am real. I’m a real living person with hopes and dreams and fears. I am your constituency. You represent me and all the others like me. We need our champions. This is your moment. Difficult times make heroes of us all.
I am only one. But, I am one of many.....I wrote a letter today