An Open Letter to the President:
Dear President Bush:
As they say in talk radio-land, long time listener, first time caller here. In the interest of full disclosure, I do root for the other team. However, I have been closely following your administration since you became President. I've been critical at times and mildly supportive at others. (I think you struck a properly defiant note in the wake of 9/11 and were correct to go after the Taliban.) On the other hand, I've been a bit, shall we saw, chagrined at your domestic policies, such as they are.
All that is by the by - no President is perfect. You seemed to be humming along to go down in history as a President that students would learn about in U.S. history class and then promptly forget - a Grover Cleveland or Zachary Taylor as it were. (Don't take it so hard - I think the same thing about Bubba.)
Until, that is - Iraq.
Well, until Iraq and the 300 plus BILLION DOLLARS you've blown to bits in that fiasco. Seriously man, what exactly were you thinking? Could you have screwed the pooch any more than you have already. (Don't answer that one.) Saddam never had any WMDs and you know it. We all know. And contrary to Fox News, we all know Saddam and Al Qaeda have as much to do with each other as George Lucas and a decent Star Wars prequel.
So I'm left with only conclusion: I want my goddam money back. I'm a hard-working taxpayer and part of that 300 billion is MY money. Your party keeps talking about how its not the government's money but MY money. Well, I think you are right. And I want MY money back.
I want that $300 billion back and 14,000,000 college scholarships it could have funded. I'll do the math for you: that's over $21,000 for each and every one of those 14,000,000 kids. Not in a tax credit, but in cash. Cash. In a time when there is a giant sucking sound of jobs going to China and India, don't you think that maybe, just maybe, that $300 billion would have gone a long way to U.S. competitiveness. And help create, you know, jobs. (I realize that having created so few jobs, you may not know what they look like. Here is a hint: Its something Americans get up for at 9, stay until 5 and get paid for the time in between while doing stuff. Stuff like making cars and programming computers and curing cancer.)
Or how about the children? Is they learning? I don't know, but that $300 billion could have paid for 40 MILLION Head Start slots. I'm a lawyer, so my math is not that good, but that sounds like enough Head Start to provide free pre-school for every single pre-K kid in the country with plenty left over to spare.
Enough to spare that maybe that $300 BILLION could have gone to hiring 5 MILLION new teachers. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a boatload of teachers. Oh wait it is - according to the U.S. Census, they are about 6.2 million teachers in the U.S. Hmmm...by my fuzzy lawyer math, that $300 BILLION would almost double the number of teachers. Holy Teachers Unions Batman - but that means we could cut class sizes in HALF. EVERYWHERE.
And since I know you and your wife love the childrens, you might like to know that the $300 BILLION could have bought one year's health insurance for 180,000,000 kids. What does that mean though - well, according to your own CIA, the U.S. has about 60 million kids aged 14 and under. Again, by my fuzzy math, that is enough insurance for THREE times as many kids as there are in this country.
Now, I know all this is pretty hard stuff and you have told us time and again how hard you are working. So, I'll make it easy. I don't need the 14,000,000 college scholarship or 5,000,000 new teachers or free pre-school for everyone or healthy kids. I just want my money back.
That's $300 billion against a U.S. population that is at almost 300 million. That's pretty easy math. I'll be waiting for that $1,000 check in the mail. And by the way, that's two and half times bigger than that $400 refund you gave me 5 years ago.
Sincerely,
goblue72