Reading time – 2:05; Viewing time – 2:54 . . .
Dear Congress:
Well, really not all that dear.
This week we had a train wreck in Washington, as an Amtrak train flew off the tracks near Tacoma. People have been injured and some have died; perhaps yet more will die.
We’ve had another train wreck in Washington, as our Republican majority Congress (that means YOU, Republican senators and congresspeople) has managed to pass tax legislation that will further injure an enormous number of Americans and will allow many of us to die prematurely.
In both cases you who are in charge seem to have forgotten that your job is to protect and serve the people and to do it with care.
With the passage of the Republican-only, so-called tax reform act, once again you have managed to do exactly the opposite of what the American people want you to do.
By an overwhelming majority we Americans disapprove of your hateful bill and wanted you to stomp it to death. You didn’t do that.
Study after study have shown that we want sensible gun safety laws, universal healthcare, protection of our national parks and wilderness areas, clean air and water, excellent public education, an end to our endless wars, a solid battle against global warming and more; but you consistently deliver the opposite.
This time you managed to put yet more billions of dollars into the pockets of already rich people, create an additional $5,000 of debt for every one of we 320 million Americans and you dumped the burden primarily on the backs of our poor and middle-class children. Congratulations on successfully sucking up to your rich donors, padding your own pockets and the pockets of the President and blowing off the rest of us.
You Republicans passed this junk legislation without any input from Democrats, with no input from tax experts and with no hearings in Congress, listening only to yourselves and those rich interests that have their hands up your back. This is exactly why we don’t trust you.
See if you can answer these three simple questions:
- We want you to do things cooperatively and help to end our culture wars, not to make them worse. Exactly what is your problem with that?
- How you can be so dumbfoundingly deaf to the voices of the people?
- 81% of Americans disapprove of you (that’s you, personally) and the job you’re doing. Can you figure out why?
C’mon now, Republican congresspeople – you’ve been in charge for 7 years and ought to know by now what we the people want. Yet we’ve known for a long time that you don’t want to hear from us, but we want to hear from you. Answer my questions.
————————————
Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we’re on a path to continually fail to make things better. It’s my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That’s the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.
YOUR ACTION STEPS: Offer your comments below and pass this along to three people, encouraging them to subscribe (IT’S A FREEBIE!) and engage. Thanks!
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.
2 Responses to A Special Message to Congress on Your Win
Sharon Sanders December 21, 2017
This is probably one of the worst times in our country’s history. A Republican Party that talks of family values and the value of human life, has just stripped this country of healthcare rights, tax breaks, education credits, the CHIP program for children’s healthcare, an EPA and other regulatory agencies that can’t use scientific words, agency staff and reasonable regulations cut everywhere, healthcare and the ACA, air waves sold only to right-wing companies, a determination to end public schools, a refusal to acknowledge global warming as they continue to take over our public lands and destroy the planet, and end to net neutrality, ending regulations and transparency of any sorts, threats to our freedom of speech, and end to reproductive rights, and so much more.
They claim the need to give more to the rich as an incentive for more jobs and to build the economy: this is a bold-faced lie. Most big corporations will take the profits, buy back their stock shares, and give more stock options to their CEOs. If they wanted to help the economy, they would have never shipped jobs and factories overseas and hidden profits in the Caymans, Bermuda, and elsewhere. They wouldn’t have imported cheap labor to replace American workers here. They don’t give a damn about this country. And so, what a farce it is when the billionaire NFL owners are insulted because black athletes don’t say the pledge according to their rules. These owners are abusive; the only thing that matters to them is a never-ending increase in profits. They’re the ones who are un-American.
Once the tax bill is official, the next part of their destructive agenda will be to use the media to tell their followers we must cut entitlement on the poor and middle class to balance the budget. How can anyone believe that crap? They’re getting the entitlements and tax breaks right now; they get corporate welfare. After the first of the year, they’re going after Social Security, Medicare and pensions. They’re goal: privatize, privatize, privatize. End government as we know it; nothing for the people. And don’t believe their free market, neo-liberal bootstraps garbage. Nothing trickles down. Most have made their money by abusing workers, ending union rights, flipping and stripping companies, charging exorbitant fees and hiding profits. Their products are made overseas with poorer and poorer quality materials, shorter lifespans, higher prices and misleading advertising, making it harder and harder to file complaints or get replacements for products–all at our expense. Everyone knows this is happening but many don’t see that this is the universal corporate way of doing business–THEY DON’T DESERVE OR NEED ANY TAX CUTS, BUT WE DO.
And how do they have the nerve to even talk about shutting down the government? More than half our budget goes to the military. That’s insane. Pay down debt that you hypothetically hate by not giving yourselves tax breaks or by taking billions off the top of the military budget. Just the idea that you’re giving yourselves almost $2 trillion in tax breaks, then talk about shutting down the government, meaning those of us relying on Social Security and Medicare and other programs won’t get our money, is pure right-wing fascism in your attempt to take over this government. You’re lying to the people and you don’t give a#@!% what we think.
Today is one of the most depressing days in my long life. We all need to come together and work to get Democrats elected everywhere, from the local level on up and we need to make sure they answer to us and not their lobbyists. David and Charles Koch and their massive network are poring hundreds of millions into defeating Democrats everywhere in 2018. We must fight this at every turn. No matter what criticism we have of the DNC, the majority of Democrats have no intention of taking away our safety net such as the pensions we’ve worked so hard for and our Social Security and Medicare. Democrats believe children matter not just while in the uterus but after they’re born; veterans matter, the disabled matter, families matter, women matter, Black and Brown people matter, muslims matter, Jews matter, Christians matter, seniors matter, LGBTQ’s matter, students matter–all people matter.The CHIP program that Republicans want to cut is critical for our the health of all our children, as is Medicare and Medicaid and so much more. Republicans in Congress, the Supreme Court, and at the state and city levels, apparently don’t. We must fight for our rights given to us under the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We can’t just sit idly by.
dominickpalella December 20, 2017
Allow me to answer the questions in your blog Jack,
1. We want you to do things cooperatively and help to end our culture wars, not to make them worse. Exactly what is your problem with that?
Answer: We have no problem inciting culture wars to keep you fighting with each other over ideological issues you can’t do anything about. If you think this is a problem, why do you keep voting for us, and refuse to cooperate with each other to demand that we pay attention to you? This is your problem, not ours!
2. How you can be so dumbfoundingly deaf to the voices of the people?
Answer: Our US Constitution does not give us any obligation to listen to the voices of the people, and why should we if they keep electing us to office because they like to hear the lies and promises we make to them every election? So keep marching in the streets so we can keep our shoe factories humming in communist China. However, please stop sending us petitions and letters. This makes the friends and family we hire to do our work, using your tax money, tired of feeding our paper shredders!
3. 81% of Americans disapprove of you (that’s you, personally) and the job you’re doing. Can you figure out why?
Answer: Actually we don’t understand this question. How many times must we drill into your simple minds that we are only concerned with getting approval from our wealthy donors? Apparently, you have not figured out why we don’t care about polls, unless it is close to election time, and we can easily herd you to vote for one of our corporate financed private political parties. So please stop complaining about the jobs that you pay us to do for our corporate friends. If you want some results, just bring some heavy cash with you when you visit our offices, just like they do.
TrueDemocracyNow.org