Friday, December 1, 2017

One More Angry Letter (sure to get me in trouble once more- TF)

Dear Senator Graham,

You sent me an email asking me if I supported the GOP tax bill.  The email had a link to a page with “yes” and “no”, and I said “no”.  I figured I’d sit here and, very honestly, type some of my reasons for my answer before you pass that useless piece of … legislation.

I sincerely don’t even know where to begin.  It’s scary to see what has become of the (not very) United States of America.  There is nothing good happening at the moment, except of course for the meteoric rise of the stock market: a good for those few of us with a little (or as the case might be, a lot of) money invested in it, but certainly not for the majority of the working class who you claim will benefit from this tax bill of yours.  This bill simplifies absolutely nothing, though simplicity was one of the claims you made for its necessity.  One will still need a degree in accounting to fill in a tax return.

I enumerate here a few of the reasons I answered “no” to your two-word answer survey.  I apologize in advance for the train of thought quality of this letter, it would take too long to write otherwise:

1)      The GOP bill is so complicated that I know you guys are either deluded or bold-faced lying when you say the average household will see a decrease in their taxes, certainly households with graduate students will not.  The only people who will really benefit are people like that horror show running the country at the moment.  Only the very rich will benefit; which makes sense since they pay, when they pay, the bulk of the taxes.  But please don’t lie, you are not passing this legislation to help “the people”, you are doing it for your very rich donors in order to remain in power.  Again, I don’t know if you are deluded or just lying, or maybe a bit of both. 
2)      …And speaking of taxing graduate student benefits, the fact that you are proposing to do this only points to the fact that you guys really don’t care about whether the public actually acquires skills to meet all those job openings that you claim will come with the passing of this bill.  And if those jobs do come and there are no Americans with the skills necessary to fill them, will you then simplify immigration policy?  Hah! 
3)      …And speaking of job creation, how do you explain the total lack of interest to invest in this country shown by top CEOs when Gary Cohn asked for a show of hands of who would invest more if the GOP tax plan passed?  You claim that job creation and company investment are the main reasons for passing this; but the reality does not seem to conform to your predictions.  How do you explain this?  Delusion?
4)      Getting rid of the Individual Mandate Penalty is ridiculous, especially because at one point such a medical insurance solution was actually a proposal by intelligent and rational Republicans that once inhabited the halls of Congress. 
5)      Last but not least, l bring up the fact that we will be spiraling into higher and higher levels of debt that will need to be paid for by future generations; once upon a time, a GOP concern.  I have no kids so I should care less, but I do in principle.  I have no faith in even the most pessimistic of your numbers, much less the rosy ones you and the president are trying to ram down our throats

I could go on, but I have better things to do; and you will strong arm this piece of legislation through, along party lines, no matter what I say.  You will do it just like the Democrats did with the Affordable Care Act; and although I totally disagree with how they did it, at least that piece of legislation had the well-being of people in need as its raison d’ĂȘtre.  Whether you admit it to yourselves or not, you are passing this bill mostly to help your donors and stay in power; but I repeat myself…  I hope that one day America is able to get its act back together.  As it is, the South might as well secede again, make a deal with Libya and import itself some slaves, go back to the old glory days eh? ...    Yes, I am very angry; Trump brings the best out in us all…

Sincerely,