Letter to a US Congressman
Due to the deepening economic crisis in the USA and a dysfunctional US Congress that is unable to pass even the annual budget, the author sent this letter to the local Congress member. The US situation is reminiscent of the political chaos that Italy and France
experienced after the traumatic experiences of World War 2.
12 April 2013
Dear Congressman:
We were happy to receive a copy of your brochure on constituent services and your assurances that you will give priority to serve working families. So permit me to expand on this subject. I have been a supporter of the Democratic Party for over two decades and, in my role as Coordinator of Friends of Sri Lanka in the US (FOSUS), have persuaded our associates to attend Democratic fund raisers and vote for Democratic candidates. As a retired elderly person I have no personal ambitions except to see a reversal of the decline of this great country of ours.
You are aware that the public approval rating of Congress now stands at a low of 9%, something which is a world record. The large numbers, particularly of younger people, who supported our President in 2012, despite misgivings about his first term performance, are again disillusioned. Campaign promises are once again broken with the excuse that compromises are needed to get bipartisan support. You will agree that the electorate has only a limited choice in our two party system, forcing voters to choose the lesser of the two evils on many occasions. This may change with time.
The Democratic party members can point to dozens of pieces of legislation they passed which are beneficial. But the key issues are still not addressed and they are the following.
More jobs for working people. We know that the official unemployment rate of 7.9% is misleading because it omits the large number who are not receiving unemployment benefits and have opted out of the job market or are only doing part-time jobs.
- More benefits for the working poor (now numbering 50 million), seniors and the unemployed. The rising level of poverty in the USA is a national disgrace. As poverty spreads, consumer purchasing power declines and businesses also decline.
- More inputs to make higher education affordable so that we will not need to import technically qualified professionals from India, China and Europe.
Without this, the USA will lose its technological lead.
The political debates on these key issues have been clouded by misinformation. This is because the national political agenda was set by the extreme neo-conservative wing of the
Republican Party from the time of President Reagan, reinforced by the organizers of The Project for a Greater America who carried out their projects under President George Bush with disastrous results for the country and the economy. And yet the response of the Democratic Party to this challenge by ideologues working for privileged 1% of this country has been totally inadequate. Except for a few like the late Edward Kennedy, Bernie Sanders and Kucinich, the Democratic responses have been muted. Even our President held up President Reagan as an icon, not President John Kennedy from our own party.
The Democratic Party has not done much to confront and destroy the neo-conservative myths that govern our economic thinking, for all these ills follow from the decline of the economy. Alan Greenspan gave the green light for the Bush era agenda that created a
bubble economy and none of the mainstream economists saw the 2008 collapse till
it happened. Instead they continue the same myths such as these.
- Social Security is bankrupt and causes the budget deficit. Social Security has 2.7 trillion dollars and is quite healthy. Whether it will weaken after 20 years will depend on how America handles its economy and politics and is too far off to predict now.
- The millionaires and billionaires and big corporations need further tax breaks. The income tax rate for millionaires for the highest income slab is 75% in most European countries. They have no problem. In the US, there is an outcry when millionaires taxes are raised above what the rest of us pay, even to a meager 39.5%. In 2011 US businesses recorded profits of 11 trillion dollars, the highest ever. Yet 25% of the largest corporations paid no tax, the average tax paid varied from 11-16% and some were continually getting government subsidies.
- Corporations create jobs. Manufacturing corporations for the last two decades have destroyed jobs by transferring manufacturing to India, China, Mexico, Canada and other destinations. They make super-profits by using cheap foreign
production and marketing them at home. To add to this, they hide their profits in tax havens in the Caribbean and nothing has been done to curb this. There have been no penalties for these anti-national acts. - We need to spend half the federal budget on the military and security services. The more wars we wage in other countries the more enemies we have made. Why do we not ask ourselves why terrorists do not attack the Scandinavians or the
Australians and other peaceful nations. How is it that China using its soft power is gaining more business and trade in Africa and Asia than we do by having military bases in these regions? The military allocations are the biggest hole in the federal budget. - Social benefits and entitlements must be cut to reduce the national debt. Successive administrations have been creating easy money through the Federal Reserve without public awareness. On a congressional decision sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Inspector-General’s office noted that around 13
trillion dollars had been issued by the Fed between 2007 and 2009 to banks
and financial institutions at token interest rates (http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=7b088bfe-18a0-4add-8ec5-02d886b71d40).
One and a half trillion dollars went to save failing banks and corporations. More easy money is flowing under the euphemism “quantitative easing”. All this is transferring the national wealth to the rich 1%. Of the 500 million dollars allocated for helping house owners under threat of foreclosure, only 10% was spent.
I am writing at length because we love this country and want to secure its future for all our coming generations. Will Congress and the Democratic Party be up to the task or will
they carry on with the same agendas? You can help to provide the answer.
Sincerely,
(Kenneth Abeywickrama)