My comments, and suggestions, are below Mr Walkers fine article. Scott
By: Jon Walker It is important to put budget issues in perspective, so I have a simple request that President Obama, the top members of his administration, and his allies in Congress send a hand written version of this letter to constituents: Dear low-income American, I know times are tough. I know many of you saw your savings and home values hurt by Wall Street recklessness. I also know that, with official unemployment above 9 percent, it is tough to find a job, and many have been forced to choose part-time employment that lacks benefits. But as a result of extending the Bush tax cuts for millionaires, the budget deficit has grown. So, despite your problems, you are going to be asked to sacrifice. Your president is planning to cut $2.6 billion from Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps people afford keeping their homes warm during the winter, despite the fact that due to the economic downturn the number of poor people needing help has increased significantly. As a result of your going without heat next winter, we will be able to afford almost one whole week of fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which cost about $468 million a day. Although when you add in the many hidden costs like increased long-term veterans health care due to the conflicts, your sacrifice is probably only really going to cover maybe half a week. I hope you understand that when we had to choose between providing basic necessities to our citizens or fighting about five more days in Iraq and Afghanistan because of [insert newest justification here], we clearly just had to choose the wars over you. Sincerely, Democrats in Washington http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/02/15/dear-poor-people-thank-you-for-going -without-heat-so-we-can-buy-another-week-of-war/ Excellent article. Maybe to save even more money, all of the Dems who vote to cut heating for the poor, should just donate what their heating bill would cost, if they were to have heat, and not turn theirs on for the winter, so they can show 'how they feel for their base'. The monetary value of their heating bills, though vastly less people are involved, will probably make up that few extra days so we can have a full week of war in the Middle East. This would make them much more electable, and I bet even the Republicans would like them more. If they were to give 80%+ of their food budget to the War effort and live on the same number of dollars that the poor live on, they might get an additional 3-4 days of war funded, and the Republicans would possibly talk in the most admiring manners about how the Democrats show how they support their base and might even be as committed to their base, as the Republicans are to their Corporate base, instead of the Democrats trying to hog in on all of that Corporate money sent to them, so they'll approve more Corporate welfare, paid for by the poor and middle class whose heating and medical and food budgets have been cut. Scott __ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
