Editor’s note: I received this email from Ben Emery, a regular commenter here: “I have an Open Letter to Tom McClintock. Accidentally a second draft was sent to Yuba Net and The Union. Here is the final draft of the letter.” What a perfect excuse to post it now. Thanks Ben!
An Open Letter To Representative McClintock
Ryan Budget
On April 15, 2011 you, along with 234 other Republicans in the House of Representatives, voted for and passed the Republican, Paul Ryan’s, 2011 budget. Although not surprised, I and many people of the California 4th district were very disappointed with your support for such a heartless and punitive approach to balancing America’s budget. The Ryan Plan does not balance the budget for at least a generation nor does it create American jobs. The federal and state budgets are not only numbers on balance sheets, they are investments into the priorities of the nation or state for which they are created. The Ryan Plan creates a brutal America ruled by a punishing government. I along with a majority of Americans do not share the 2011 Republican Party vision for America.
The United States of America for the last three decades has seen its national debt explode from less than a trillion dollars in 1980 to nearly thirteen trillion dollars at the end of 2008. It’s anybody’s guess what the national debt will be at the end of President Obama’s first administration. There is a question that seems to be avoided by both major political parties; how was this debt and financial crisis created? Only until this question is answered can we begin to reverse the policies that led us to our current situation.
It has not been the American people and its workers that caused the financial crisis or national debt; it has been the Republican agenda of permitting unchecked and reckless behavior by the large banks, unpaid for and illegal invasions and occupations of sovereign nations, tax breaks for the top 1 percent of Americans, and an unpaid for Medicare Part D drug plan written by big pharmaceutical lobbyists. In addition, the size and power of the federal government have been drastically increased with new defense agencies, along with the devastating and revenue reducing trade agreements promoted by multi-national corporations and embraced by the Democratic and Republican Party leaderships.
I’m not a member of either major political party. My opinion of the budget and the policies of our government is not formed by Republican or Democratic partisanship. The Obama budget, out of the three budget proposals, was the worst at balancing the budget though it created American jobs. The Ryan budget, as mentioned above, doesn’t balance the budget or create American jobs while making vicious cuts to the programs that help the most vulnerable among us. The Republican agenda is an obvious attempt to reverse almost every advance fought for by working Americans to secure ourselves from poverty over the past 80 years: Social Security, Medicare/ Medicaid, Education, Unemployment Insurance, and other social safety nets agreed upon by the people. Unfortunately both of our major parties are controlled by big money special interests, one by choice and the other by necessity, and the American people have become unrepresented in our state and federal capitals.
There was a third budget proposed called the People’s Budget that was ignored by the major media. I encourage you to research and support the People’s Budget. This proposal, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would have a budget surplus of $30 billion by 2021, years ahead of the Ryan plan while strengthening Medicare and including a public option. It would accomplish this by reducing the deficit by $5.6 trillion, by increasing revenue $3.9 trillion and reducing our spending by $1.7 trillion. In the savings from the spending cuts, $1.4 trillion are freed to go into our crumbling infrastructure creating jobs, education, and research/ development. America could regain its competitive edge in the 21st Century with other developed nations. This budget brings our troops home from Afghanistan and promotes American manufacturing. The increase in revenue will come from ending the Bush tax breaks and taxing all income after $1 million at a 49% rate. This budget creates a fair-shared sacrifice by all Americans while digging us out of the hole that 30 years of horrendous economic and trade policies has dug for us.
What America needs are policies that bring us together. It isn’t necessary to divide us and turn working class Americans against each other. The reason neither major party’s leadership will even consider such a budget is because of the corruption that plagues our entire system with big money special interest influence over our policies.
Ben Emery
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