AN OPEN LETTER TO THE UTAH REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION

I have been a member of the Republican Party since 1974, but here lately I feel like I am in a family that has gone dysfunctional.

Republicans in Congress express shock – shock! – at the federal deficit and propose huge spending cuts, mostly against the interests of poor and middle class people. Republicans will leave no billionaire behind in this crisis, of course; they will continue somehow to grow the military budget.

I find Republican hypocrisy about debt utterly breathtaking. The founding fathers wrote the Constitution in part to consolidate commerce, currency, and debt. The USA fought the Revolutionary War, Civil War, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan Wars all on borrowed money. Republican presidents Nixon, Reagan, Bush the Second, and various congresses all increased federal debt and debt ceilings

Americans have for ages purchased The American Dream with both federal and individual debt.
The American Way has always pushed payments two generations into the future. Why has the current crop of Republicans suddenly become righteous about debt?

Debt is not the main problem.

Americans consume mass quantities and shift payment into the future. We cannot sustain The American Dream and American in current funds. This has been our situation for ages. We always insist that Congress fund several federal pet programs to the max, but we want someone else to pay for those programs. Americans want the services of government but do not want to pay for them in taxes. So, both Democrats and Republicans implicitly supported deficit spending policies.

Most of your constituents will support federal budget cuts so long as Congress cuts programs where they do not have any sort of vested interest.

American culture is the problem.

Meanwhile, Congressional leaders and President Obama make speeches, go through complex public spectacles and rituals, and do not deal with the real problems of a culture too big to fund.


FIVE CALLS TO ACTION

I realize that a good letter deals in only one big issue at a time. However, today I do not quite have time to do that.

1. I would find it interesting to hear you express for the public record what we should reduce or eliminate in American culture.

2. The House and the Senate will need to raise the debt ceiling quickly.

3. The tax system is too complicated. Congress should reform it so everyone pays something into the funding of America.

4. Congress will have to raise taxes on the very rich and revoke a lot of tax credits on corporations and individuals, even the ones with political clout.

5. The oversees Empire of the United States has become too complicated and expensive to maintain. This means that the military needs streamlining, modernizing, and reducing.