Debt Ceiling posts by D.K. Christi and Don E. Harpe

Copied below are the two posts Abe wishes to forward. Both Don and I have agreed that our words may be used for lobbying efforts.

I want to send a message to the President. Here is the message. Please
read it, suggest changes or additions. Add your name to your post to be
included. It should be your name, city and state where you live, with
title, author.

Dear President Obama:

A State of Emergency exists with many citizens of America.Many
of us are living in fear and that fear is real. As seniors our
livelihood is being threatened by the loss of Social Security income. We
paid into the SS fund. If there is no money in the fund, where is it?
If it was used and not returned it is akin to theft. It is called an
entitlement and that is a correct label. We are entitled to the money we
paid into the fund. Medicare and VA care is also threatened. The
veteran swore an oath to serve and put his/her life on the line. What
about the promises made to the veterans? The enemy is not some foreign
power, but those who are ready to renege on their promises and deprive
the citizens of life-sustaining services.

Mr.President, your efforts for a universal health care program is
appreciated. We know that the enemies within, supported by the rich and
powerful, don’t want it to succeed. The enemies talk about the
trickle-down theory. Where has it trickled down? Can they give examples
of this theory? Where are the jobs they created? What
happened to America’s middle class? We have a two-class society, rich
and poor, with the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer.

In the preamble to our constitution, it says, “…establish justice ,insure
domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense and promote the
general Welfare…” What happened to justice, Tranquility and general
Welfare?

If there are tax breaks, don’t you think those breaks should apply to all
Americans? If the rich get tax breaks based on the trickle-down theory,
allow them to keep the breaks if they can demonstrate how those breaks
created jobs. If not, they should be required to pay up.

I am an author and participate on a forum with other authors. The current
state of emergency is being discussed. Here are two postings by other
authors.

By D.K. Christi:
The President of the United States has not threatened anything. He cannot
assure anyone that government business will go forward because the debt
ceiling has never before been held hostage to opposing political
agendas. His original request was the traditional bill extending the
debt ceiling to cover the debts already incurred - not new debt - the
debts we have already promised to pay. That's what debt is - already
spent funds.

What is our debt? The majority is from the reduction in taxes during the
Bush Administration that reduced needed revenue to support the war
effort. The war effort is the biggest piece of the debt since when the
war was started, there were no taxes or financial hardships imposed on
the U.S. citizens while the best young men and women were being sent to
face death. The next piece of the debt came from the programs
implemented to put specific industries back into business to provide
jobs or prevent the loss of jobs. That is only a small piece of the debt
since those payments were successful and have been nearly paid back in
full - in full. Another piece of the debt is payments owed to senior
citizens and disabled persons for medical care that has been one of the
most efficient delivery systems of medical care imaginable. While costs
for insurance and general medical care have skyrocketed with exorbitant
salaries in the insurance industry and high awards to malpractice
attorneys and for malpractice insurance, the administration of the
medicare program has been lean and efficient. The program works. It
extends quality life and provides a safety net for people who previously
either died, were burdens to families or ended up on the federal dole
because all funds were exhausted from illness. Social Security and
medicare are paid for by those who are employed for the benefit of those
who retire. It's a pay for itself program. Medicaid primarily serves
children and elderly who have no other source of medical care. Because
it is administered by states, it is less efficient and has a variety of
service methods making its efficiency difficult to measure. Both
programs serve people with no other resources for the most part, those
least able to lobby for themselves.

Thus the debt was incurred by wars and tax gifts to the wealthy and
corporations that shrunk the revenue needed to support the war effort
and the promised services to citizens.

The debt ceiling" is semantics that matter in the money markets. Not
increasing the debt ceiling at this time is not comparable to living
within our means at home. The war effort should have been a pay as you
go effort - taxing for the war at the time of the war. Tax breaks to the
wealthiest people and corporations who have windfall profits from the
labors and benefits of this wonderful country and its working class is
plain stupid. That stupidity should not be borne by the least able.

President Obama is just stating the obvious. When it comes time to pay the bills,
the current revenue flow will not pay them all. Everyone knows that,
but he said it to be perfectly clear. The debt ceiling must be lifted so
the government can pay existing debts. It will be a world class debacle
not to.

The next step is to remove those ridiculous tax breaks to the wealthy and
largest corporations, extend the salary taxes past the current income
limits for social security and collect outstanding IRS debts rather than
adding people to the prisons who need to work off the debt they owe us.

It's taking a statement and turning it into a threat that keeps people on
edge and unable to evaluate the truth from the political hyperbole.

By E. Don Harpe
The debt limit (ceiling) was first introduced in 1917, and since then
Congress has never failed to raise it. Actually, the first time it was
put on the table was in 1981, and it was the Gipper himself who raised
it that year. Back then President Ronald Reagan said, quote: “The full
consequences of a default – or even the serious prospect of default – by
the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate.
Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would
have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value
of the dollar.”

And now we learn that every time it’s been put on the table since then,
it’s been raised. President George W. Bush raised the debt ceiling in 2002 – 03 –
04 – 05 – 06 – 07 – and 08. President Barrack Obama raised it in 2009 and 2010.
And here’s the kicker. The budget, or passing a budget, was not
connected to raising the debt ceiling in any of those years.

So, why is it this year the Republican’s in Congress are determined to tie
the debt ceiling to the passing of a new budget, and why are they
standing so firm on what they insist on calling “raising taxes?” We know
it isn’t really raising taxes, it’s just rolling them back to where
they were before George W. Bush started the second biggest welfare
program in the history of the country, by giving billions of tax dollars
to the wealthiest people in the country. We know the argument that the
“tax breaks for the wealthy” are needed to create jobs, and if that were
true, it would be well spent. But it simply isn’t true. They aren’t
creating any jobs, at least not here in this country. They’re sitting on
the money, giving their corporate heads raises and personal jets, but
they aren’t creating any jobs. I honestly believe they could create
jobs, I just don’t think they want to. Most of these elite wealthy
people who have their hands so deep in the taxpayers pockets are
themselves Republicans, and I think they are very deliberately not
creating jobs in order to point to the unemployment situation and the
number of jobs not created as a means to get a Republican elected to the
White House again in 2012. They want this, because in that way they’re
pretty sure the government teat they’re sucking off will never dry up.
So the idea that rolling back the tax breaks will in some way hinder job
growth is nonsensical. Job growth due to the tax breaks is non-existent
all ready, so how can it be hindered more?

The other reason, which also deals with the creating of new jobs, says that
even the mention of rolling back taxes has been enough to keep the
people who get the wealthy welfare checks from investing the money to
create the jobs. How hokey is that? Are they that afraid? I doubt it.
Most people doubt it.

The American people believe that it is unconscionable to try and balance
the budget by spending cuts alone, especially when those cuts come at
the expense of those Americans least able to afford the cuts, and most
likely to suffer from them. We are already graduating students that can
barely read, and can’t find New York or Los Angeles on a map, and they
want to take money away from education. Nearly every college in the
country is raising tuition just to get by, and they want to take money
from the grants program. Seniors are being told they have to choose
between eating and buying medicine, between paying their utility bills
and their phone bills. Social programs that do the most good in this
country are being stripped of funding, when they know it will keep many
middle aged ladies from getting needed mammograms. And why is this being
done? To create jobs if you listen to the Republicans, but if you
listen to the rank and file working man and woman on the street, it’s
being done so the wealthy can remain in their gated communities, in
their million dollar homes, and fly around the world on vacations. It’s
being done so oil companies and big farm businesses can keep making
record profits, and keep their corporate jets in the air. It’s being
done so the war in the Middle East can continue, and the war is
continuing, not to keep us safe, but to keep pouring billions of dollars
into the coffers of a handful of corporations. The war has never been
about terrorism, or keeping America safe from attack. It’s been about
making dollars for a handful of very powerful people who think it is
their right to rape this country until the middle class and the working
class bleed.

I think the Republicans and those idiot members of the tea bag party that
are doing everything in their power to hold this country hostage,
should be brought to trial for treason.

Other authors who agree with the above are:

Thak you for compiling this for us, DK. I shall print it out and send my signed copy to the white house.

Good job
Thank you!

Thanks, DK for the editing. For those of you who send this by whatever means, include my name as follows:
Abe F. March
Charlottesville, VA
Author

I posted this as a blog on my website
http://tinyurl.com/679zhgw

Abe, the link takes me to my own site!

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