My Tax Day Letters to Congress

Yesterday was an extremely busy day. As a matter of fact, I am still recovering. I have the unfortunate habit of working too much, and all the late nights have started to add up. Regardless, I rattled off some letters yesterday to my Representatives in the Senate, as well as President Obama. I seem to have misplaced Mr. Obama's letter, so I will add it in a later post. It is similar enough to this one that you will get the point. To Mr. Linder, my Representative in the House, I sent a thank you card. He does a good job and seldom disappoints me. I am willing to excuse the approval of Hillary to Obama's cabinet in view of the fact that it removes her from the Senate. It is one of the few things the President has done right in recent months. So, without further ado, my letter. Make of it what you will. Rumor has it I'm a Right Wing Extremist.

Mr. Chambliss and Mr. Isakson,
I am writing you this letter in the hope that you will give me a few minutes of your time to understand my point of view. I have long been disappointed with your performances as my representatives in the Senate. You do not uphold the Conservative principles of limited government and individual liberty that are the cornerstones of Republicanism. To be fair, you are not the only guilty parties in Congress. However, you are the ones who represent me and I feel it is past time to make my opinions clear to you. You have not only lost my vote, but I will make sure every Republican I know is aware of your voting record and the affect your decisions have on the lives of the people. You have been in office too long, and signed off on too much spending and regulation. It is time for you to be replaced in the Senate by truly Conservative politicians who will fight back against the Democrat majority and represent the views of the people. Because I know you are busy men, I will not burden you with criticism and diatribe. I will simply give you some suggestions to do with as you will.
1. I suggest you read Atlas Shrugged. I am sure you're sick of hearing about it, so in the interest of brevity, I am including copies of the more important pages from my own edition of the book. Ms. Rand left Communist Russia because of the tyranny and poverty imposed on the people by her government. She saw first-hand what an over-bearing government does to its people.
2. Please take the time to read some history. This will back up the points made in Ms. Rand's book. Collectivism does not work, and you cannot make it work. It doesn't matter why you want an earmark or an entitlement, the results are the same -bigger government and higher taxes.
3.Making everyone equal only brings people down. Who do you expect to keep the country going when we are all equally poor? You can print money all day, but we all know that makes things worse. The only way government has to generate income is through taxes. I appreciate that you opposed the recent bailouts. However, you supported Bush's stimulus package which was both unnecessary, and unfair to the people who have worked hard and made the appropriate decisions in their personal lives. It is not government's job to help people or redistribute wealth. By supporting the stimulus, you helped open the door for the current round of bailouts and regulation. It is hypocritical for you to say that you support one and not the other. Both were wrong.
America is a great country, and I would like it to stay that way. You were elected to do a job, not enforce your personal ideology, or to try to help people. I hope you will take a moment to evaluate your actions and the consequences they have for the rest of us. Please consider putting forth some real solutions that will instill the American people and the world with the confidence we need to move forward in a positive direction. My suggestion to you is that we need less government, not more. Less regulation, not more. America was founded on the principles of individual liberty and freedom. It is time to reacquaint ourselves with the concept. The Fair Tax would be a good place to start. Thank you for your time and consideration, Senators. I hope that you will not simply disregard my letter because you don't like what I have to say. Whether you agree with me or not, I have a right to my opinion. I respect you as my representatives in Congress, for better or worse. I hope you will extend me the same respect as a citizen under your governance. We both have a huge responsibility as Americans. I hope you prove yourself worthy of that distinction in the future.

After I wrote the letters, I stood in line at the post office for 45 minutes to mail them. After all, everyone was trying not to pay those nasty taxes just yet. After getting my son from school and taking him to a friend's house, I was on my way to the Tea Party with 15,000+ people, where I was happy to hear that some of them had sent similar letters and copies of Atlas Shrugged. There's hope for this country yet.
More on the Tea Party later...