An Open Letter to my Elected Representatives

The following is the text of a letter that I am sending to my Congressman and Senators.

To: Senator Mitch McConnell, Senator Rand Paul, Congressman John Yarmuth
From:  DaddyBear

Subject:  Federal Debt Ceiling and Tax Increases

Gentlemen,

Last week I watched President Obama talk about how Americans in my tax bracket and higher are not paying their fair share, even though these people pay the vast majority of the income taxes that our government collects.  At the same time, I see that 47% of Americans pay no taxes at all.

I and my family are not rich.  We have worked hard all our life, starting at minimum wage jobs.  We have been prudent about our home purchase, and minimized the amount we have borrowed to finance our education.  We both work, and have done our utmost to stay off of unemployment and other forms of assistance during hard times.  Because we have spent our adult lives working up from low wage jobs to jobs that compensate us fairly for our education, work ethic, and skills, we pay higher taxes. We accept that some taxation is necessary to pay for the government services we use such as roads and schools, but we are already doing our fair share.  To have the President go before the American people and say that we are shirking our responsibility when almost half of Americans bear no fiscal responsibility to the nation is insulting.

This weekend, I saw Treasury Secretary Geithner talk about how the United States needs to raise its debt ceiling so that even more debt can be accumulated.  I see him speculate that the government would have to start defaulting on the credit that has already been extended to it if it is not allowed to go deeper into the hole.  At the same time, my family is cutting our expenses as much as possible in order to prepare for higher prices on food, fuel, and other things that we need due to the high cost of petroleum and other essentials.

And yesterday, I learned that Standard and Poor have warned the government that if it does not get its fiscal house in order, the United States government will lose its AAA bond rating.  In that event, the full faith and credit of the United States will be impaired, and the risk of high inflation will become a reality. 

Raising the tax rates to confiscatory levels for Americans who make more than $100,000.00, even if rates approached 100%, would not provide enough revenue to close the current fiscal gap.  We have been on a bender of borrowing and spending since the 1980's, and our rate of debt increase has increased radically in the last decade. Only by going through the federal budget and reducing spending across the board, even on such politically charged areas as entitlement programs and the military, will we be able to soften the blow that our nation is about to feel. 

Gentlemen, as a constituent and fellow American, I urge you to work together to cut our federal spending and prevent the economic meltdown that many are beginning to see on the horizon.

Thank you,

Daddy J. Bear