To the Editor:
When the Obama administration introduced their 700-page, $750 trillion budget to Congress they gave a copy to the members one day before they scheduled it for a vote. Many of the Congressmen complained that few had the opportunity to read it, much less vote on the bill.
In the Senate, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of three Republicans who voted for the bill, amended it to limit the salaries of bonuses of the recipients of the government subsidies to $100,000. But when the bill went to a conference, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., changed the amendment to “allow any bonus that was given before the bill was passed, would be legal.”
When it came to light that some had received as high as $6 million bonuses, the president and all the Congressmen declared “they were against these bonuses.” Apparently even the Democrats hadn’t read the bill they voted for. I agree the $6 million is scandalous. I also believe that professional athletes get too much money, but I sure wouldn’t vote for it and then complain that it’s wrong.
The president tells people that he is giving a tax cut to 95 percent of the middle class, but the bill they passed added a tax on energy which basically hits the middle class the hardest. Taxes on your heating bill, the gas used going to work, transporting all of the commodities (clothing, equipment, groceries, etc.) that you and I need to live, bear little relationship to the amount of our income.
The fellow who gets $6 million may eat a little more than we do, but it is a much smaller percentage of his income. The man who delivers the groceries to your store is going to charge more when the price of fuel goes up. Many industries, like the airlines, laid off their employees because the cost of fuel had bankrupted them. Many auto companies laid off employees because of rising fuels costs. How many laid-off employees are defaulting on their home loans? How many laid-off workers are building new homes, buying new cars, etc.?
The campaigning is over so let’s start to get the people back to work; taxing energy is the worst possible way to do that. Farmers are not going to go back to farming with horses and hoes. We’re not going to quit using gas or electricity to milk our cows, heat our homes, use our computers, etc. Reasonably priced energy made this country what it is today. People need jobs, not more empty platitudes.
When you are campaigning for offices, you can make a lot of promises but now it’s time for solving the problem. Shouldn’t it be imperative that these people at least read the bills before they vote on them? Is there any excuse for voting for a bill and two days later saying you’re against it?
Politically, however, it’s brilliant on their part. Who is going to be blamed for the increase in taxes? Is it the politicians or will it be the gas company?
Alfred Schumann
Eyota
Current Edition
Letter: Enough promises; let’s start solving problems
<i>Originally published in the May 15, 2009, print edition.</i>
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