Day 7... Dear Mr. President

Day 7

Dear Mr. President,

We’ve all heard the phase, and the call for, “shared sacrifice”… we’ve heard it from you, the Republicans, Democrats, and virtually anyone that needs to balance a budget, including every American family.

Here’s what the people hear when Washington talks about ‘sharing sacrifices’… “slash Medicare, slash Social Security, slash education, slash job training, slash parks, slash day-care, slash Planned Parenthood, and slash anything and everything that benefit ‘the people’. 

Here’s what we don’t hear from the politicos in Washington… reign in Wall Street, close the loop holes for tax dodgers like G.E., Exxon, B of A, Chevron, Boeing, Valero, Goldman Sachs, Carnival, FedEx, ConocoPhillips and Citigroup, and the list goes on. We don’t hear from politicians how they’re going to sacrifice, but we, ‘the people’, need to learn to do without affordable health care, without affordable housing, without affordable drugs, without an affordable education for our children, and any other public program they deem unnecessary.

Once again this is an area where ‘trickle down’ doesn’t work, and ‘trickle up’ is impossible. The sacrifice doesn’t start at the top from those who can afford it the most, it starts at the bottom, from those who can afford it the least. And worst of all it starts with the kids and hurts them the most. When families can’t even afford to stay in their own homes because they can’t get the banks to help with loan modifications, or mortgage refinancing…. Who do you think it hurts the most? It hurts families with children. And yet, the banks got the  ‘bail out money’. Did that money ‘trickle down’ to ordinary citizens? No!

Politicians are hurting the most vulnerable segment of the population… children. How can they get away with this abuse of power year after year? Because children don’t vote and nobody seems willing to vote on their behalf. That includes many seniors, whose children are grown… they vote down bond after bond that will help the schools and our kids. Shameful!

You’ve heard the expression, “you can’t get blood from a turnip”... well Mr. President, average Americans are a whole garden full of turnips… we’ve got no more to give and nothing left to sacrifice.

You, Mr. President, need to stop rewarding the rich with tax breaks they don’t need, and start taxing those corporations that are reaping huge profits while paying no taxes, and give the “American People” a break. You have the power… use it!

Most Respectfully,

Marcia Reimers

The Gadfly Granny