From: Roger Inman
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2008 11:30 AM
To: Inman Notes
Subject: This is a real American
When you are finished...Log on to www.cmillerdrilling.com
Corey Miller Well Driller
22 Oct 2008
Mr. Obama,
Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe the plumber,
and the persecution that has been heaped on him because he dared to
question you, I find myself motivated to say a few things to you myself.
While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I already have started not
one, but 4 businesses. But first, let me introduce myself. You can call me
'Cory the well driller'. I am a 54 year old high school graduate. I didn't
go to college like you, I was too ready to go 'conquer the world' when I
finished high school. 25 years ago at age 29, I started my own water well
drilling business at a time when the economy here in East Texas was in a
tailspin from the crash of the early 80's oil boom. I didn't get any help
from the government, nor did I look for any. I borrowed what I could from
my sister, my uncle, and even the pawn shop and managed to scrape together
a homemade drill rig and a few tools to do my first job. My businesses did
not start not a result of privilege. It is the result of my personal
drive,
personal ambition, self discipline, self reliance, and a determination to
treat my customers fairly. From the very start my business provided one
other (than myself) East Texan a full time job. I couldn't afford a
backhoe
the first few years (something every well drilling business had), so I and
my helper had to dig the mud pits that are necessary for each and every
job
with hand shovels. I had to use my 10 year old, 1/2 ton pickup truck for
my
water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).
A year and a half after I started the business, I scraped together a 20%
down payment to get a modest bank loan and bought a (28 year) old, worn
out, slightly bigger drilling rig to allow me to drill the deeper water
wells in my area. I spent the next few years drilling wells with the rig
while simultaneously rebuilding it between jobs. Through these years I
never knew from one month to the next if I would have any work or be able
to pay the bills. I got behind on my income taxes one year, and spent the
next two years paying that back (with penalty and interest) while keeping
up with ongoing taxes. I got behind on my water well supply bill 2
different years (way behind the second time... $80,000.00), and spent over
a year paying it back (each time) while continuing to pay for ongoing
supplies C.O.D.. Of course, the personal stress endured through these
experiences and years is hard to measure. I do have a stent in my heart
now
to memorialize it all.
I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being the most
competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas. 2 years along
the way, I hired another full time employee for the drilling business so
that we could provide full time water well pump service as well as the
well
drilling. Also, 3 years along the path, I bought a water well screen
service machine from a friend, starting business # 2. 5 years later I made
a business loan for $100,000.00 to build a new, higher production,
computer
controlled screen service machine. I had designed the machine myself, and
it didn't work out for 3 years so I had to make the loan payments without
the benefit of any added income from the new machine. No government
program
was there to help me with the payments, or to help me sleep at night as I
lay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay my bills.
Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machine working properly, and
that
provided another full time job for an East Texan in the screen service
business.
2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for
$250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the support
equipment
needed to run another, larger, drill rig. This provided another 2 full
time
jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple of years not knowing if I
had
made a smart move, or a move that would bankrupt me. For the third time in
13 years, I had placed everything I owned on the line, risking everything,
in order to build a business.
A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a new kind
of
mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water well drill rigs. I
spent my entire life savings to date (just $30,000.00), building a
prototype of the pump and took it to the national water well convention to
show it off. Customers immediately started coming out of the woodworks to
buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I had depleted my assets making
the
prototype, and nobody would make me a business loan to start production of
the new pumps. With several deposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere
to go, I finally started applying for as many credit card as I could find
and took cash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00
(including modest loans from my dear sister and brother), to get this 3rd
business going.
Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effort to
start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and I had to
design and bring into production a complex hydraulic machine from an
untested prototype to a reliable production model (in six months). How
many
nights I lay awake wondering if I had just made the paramount mistake of
my
life I cannot tell you, but there were plenty. I managed to get the pumps
into production, which immediately created another 2 full time jobs in
East
Texas. Some of the models in the first year suffered from quality issues
due to the poor workmanship of one of my key suppliers, so I and an
employee (another East Texan employed) had to drive across the country to
repair customers' pumps, practically from coast to coast. I stood behind
the product, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financed
me
(and my brother and sister). I spent the next 5 years improving and
refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and the company,
working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers' product lines, and
paying back credit cards. During all this time I continued to manage a
growing water well business that was now operating 3 drill rig crews, and
2
well service crews. Also, the screen service business continued to grow.
No
government programs were there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that's ok, I
didn't expect any, nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make
success happen to sit around waiting for the government to help me.
Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, my combined
businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute $5,000,000.00
annually through the local economy. Now, just 4 months ago I borrowed
$1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlled machining equipment to start
my 4th business, a production machine shop. The machine shop will serve
the
mud pump company so that we can better manufacture our pumps that are
being
shipped worldwide. Of course, the machine shop will also do work for
outside companies as well. This has already produced 2 more full time
jobs,
and 2 more should develop out of it in the next few months. This should
work out, but if it doesn't it will be because you, and the other
professional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed our countrys'
(and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgage loan programs
through your liberal manipulation and intimidation of loaning institutions
to make sure that unqualified borrowers could get mortgages. You see, at
the very time when I couldn't get a business loan to get my mud pumps into
production, you were working with Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act
programs to make sure that unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no
down payment, and even no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the
infamous, liberal, Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these
unqualified borrowers were enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I
was paying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used to
provide me the funds for the mud pump business that has created jobs for
more East Texans. It's funny, because after 25 years of turning almost
every dime of extra money back into my businesses to grow them, it has
been
only in the last two years that I have finally made enough money to be
able
to put a little away for retirement, and now the value of that has dropped
40% because of the policies you and your ilk have perpetrated on our
country.
You see, Mr. Obama, I'm the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I'm the guy
who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting,
stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead. I'm the guy who
has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the
last 25 years, and all the while creating more and more jobs for East
Texans who didn't want to take a risk, and wouldn't demand from themselves
what I have demanded from myself. I'm the guy you characterize as 'the
Americans who can afford it the most' that you believe should be taxed
more
to provide income redistribution 'to spread the wealth' to those who have
never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You
want to characterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and
who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have
bought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent
all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political
career. What's worse, each year more Americans buy into your liberal
entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better
life instead of themselves. Liberals are succeeding through more than 40
years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and
liberal indoctrination programs in the public school systems across our
land.
What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great by
people who embraced the one-time American culture of self reliance, self
motivation, self determination, self discipline, personal betterment, hard
work, risk taking. A culture built around the concept that success was in
reach on every able bodied American who would strive for it. Each year
that
less Americans embrace that culture, we all descend together. We descend
down the socialist path that has brought country after country ultimately
to bitter and unremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the
media and school systems would spend half as much effort cultivating a
culture of can-do across America as you do cultivating your entitlement
culture, we could see Americans at large embracing the conviction that
they
can elevate themselves through personal betterment, personal achievement,
and self reliance. You see, when people embrace such ideals, they act on
them. When people act on such ideals, they succeed. All of America could
find herself elevating instead of deteriorating. But that would eliminate
the need for liberal politicians, wouldn't it, Mr. Obama? The country
would
not need you if the country was convinced that problem solving was best
left with individuals instead of the government. You and all your liberal
comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependent class in our
country. It is the very business of liberals to create an ever expanding
dependence on government. What's remarkable is that you, who have never
produced a job in your life, are going to tax me to take more of my money
and give it to people who wouldn't need my money if they would get off
their entitlement mentality asses and apply themselves at work, demand
more
from themselves, and quit looking to liberal politicians to raise their
station in life.
You see, I know because I've had them work for me before. Hundreds of them
over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to work on time.
People who just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6 days. People
always looking for a way to put less effort out. People who actually tell
me that they would do more if I just would first pay them more. People who
take off work to sit in government offices to apply to get free government
handouts (gee, I wonder how things would have turned out for them if they
had spent that time earning money and pleasing their employer?). You see,
all of this comes from your entitlement mentality culture.
Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrong
again. You see, I've seen what the average percentage of your income has
been given to charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoring the years
you started running for office - can you pronounce "politically
motivated"), you averaged of less than 1% annually. And your running mate,
Joe Biden, averaged less than ΒΌ% of his annual income in charitable
contributions over the last 10 years. Like so many liberals, the two of
you
want to give to the needy, just as long as it is someone else's money you
are giving to them. I won't say what I have given to charities over the
last 25 years, but the percentage is several times more than you or Joe
Biden (don't you just hate google?). Tell me again how you feel my pain.
In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that
is wrong with our country. You represent the culture of government
dependence instead of self reliance; Entitlement mentality instead of
personal achievement; Penalization of the successful to reward the
unmotivated; Political correctness instead of open mindedness and open
debate. If you are successful, you may preside over the final
transformation of America from being the greatest and most self-reliant
culture on earth, to just another country of whiners and wimps, who sit
around looking to the government to solve their problems. Like all of
western Europe. All countries on the decline. All countries that, because
of liberal socialistic mentalities, have a little less to offer mankind
every year.
God help us...
Cory Miller
just a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americans used
to
be.
P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American...
http://www.cmillerdrilling.com/
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