How many have called, written letters or sent e-mail messages to Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, Representative Bill Johnson, Speaker of the House - John Boehner, and President Obama? If we live in a true democracy, then we must do more than cast a vote. As citizens of a democracy we must constantly let our elected officials know what we the people need.
Today, many of our elected officials only listen to the loudest voices and those who have the most money to give them. We need to call or write to tell them that we, the majority, of this country want them to tax the 1%. They have had tax cuts under President Bush since 2001. This savings was to produce jobs. The opposite is true as we all know. Unemployment numbers increased from that day forward. Tell our Congress let the Bush tax cuts expire. According to the Center for Responsive Politics 47 percent or 250 current member of Congress are millionaires. No wonder they want to keep the Bush tax cuts.
Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength is sending 21 members to Washington to hopefully convince super committee senators and representatives that the rich need to pay higher taxes, the Los Angeles Times reports.
"Democrats want a balanced package, including a combination of spending cuts and new tax revenue, along with measures to address the top Democratic priority: job creation. Republicans want massive spending cuts, no investments in the economy, and tax cuts - which move the super-committee further from its goal, not closer," according to Sarah Seltzer.
We need to let them know that we do not approve of cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, nor do we want them to mess with Social Security. Some of the people in Columbus and Washington want to privatize the money that working people contribute to their retirement fund. Do not mess with these funds. If they can make the process more efficient so be it. But don't mess with funds.
We must let our Congress know that they need to cut the loop holes and cut subsidies for the large corporations. We are tired of hearing about how they want jobs, but vote down the president's jobs plan. I never studied economics, but from history I learned that the government must spend in order to get people back to work. This kind of spending is needed to repair our roads, bridges, schools, etc.
We are tired of the righteousness of some of our officials who are working for a very small percentage of people.
Call, write or visit their local offices to tell our elected officials we do not want cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and we want the Bush tax cuts to expire.
Margaret Meeker
Lower Salem
