Dear Honorable Senators and Representatives

I write on behalf of the people of the United States of America. I write to try once again to get you to hear us. We wonder what your opinion is of us, why it is that no matter how many times we write or call to tell you we don’t want to give you anymore of our money you ignore us. No matter how many times we rise together to protest that this is not the direction we wish to take our country in, you turn a blind eye. ‘We know what you think’ you say. ‘We understand that we are talking about a lot of money especially to the common everyday man. You simply don’t understand, and can’t see from where you are how big this crisis is. We must act now we must do something. That is what you elected us for. If you could just see the whole picture.’ You say ‘then you would understand’.
I am reminded of other politicians who had similar thoughts. Bastiat in his essay The Law speaks of the great arrogance that was present in his day. The politicians and writers who felt that mankind must have the powerful hand of the legislator to prevent the downward spiral of humankind. There seems to be a dichotomy though. Here are Bastiat’s words on the hypocrisy of the legislator. “When it is time to vote, apparently the voter is not to be asked for any guarantee of his wisdom. His will and capacity to choose wisely are taken for granted. Can the people be mistaken? Are we not living in an age of enlightenment?. . . Are they not capable of judging for themselves? Do they not know what is best for themselves? Is there a class or a man who would be so bold as to set himself above the people, and judge and act for them? No, no, the people are and should be free. They desire to manage their own affairs, and they shall do so. But when the legislator is finally elected -- ah! then indeed does the tone of his speech undergo a radical change. The people are returned to passiveness, inertness, and unconsciousness; the legislator enters into omnipotence. Now it is for him to initiate, to direct, to propel, and to organize”

I think that we are not the ones that cannot see. Please stop for a moment and listen. Let us show you the whole picture. Let us help you to see and to understand why we Americans are against and appalled at what you are doing up in your ivory towers. The new mother who looks at her child and knows that because of her lack of power to stop it, this child will take home less of their pay then any generation before. The father out working on the car with his son who looks at him and wonders if a mechanics pay will ever be enough to sustain him now that taxes are so high. The single mom who takes out her few bills and adds up how many groceries it can buy knowing that she must add more and more to cover taxes. The small business owner who falls into bed exhausted at the end of the day because he no longer can afford to hire extra help. You see he is one of the rich elite class who works to support his family. The grandmother who has horded her pennies for years saving the rubber bands off of newspapers and carefully washing them so she wouldn’t have to dip into her slender savings to buy them. Can you see her? Do you see her wrinkled hands washing, her smile as she explains to her grandchildren how to be careful with their money and never go into debt? The wisdom of the ages past shines in her face. What is she going to do when inflation causes that little nest egg she has built up ever so carefully to be worth nothing? You can pay her bills with printed money, but can you ever give her back her independence, the joy and contentment that comes from a life of planning ahead? Do you see us? We are here. We are living and laughing and continuing strong in life, because that is what we do. When life slows down though and we have a minute we wonder 'What does the future hold? How can we ever get out from this mountain of debt? What happens if we can't?'

In 1610 in Virginia, some politicians decided that the free market system just wasn’t working. They took control and placed stringent limits on what could or couldn’t be done with “the common store.” In heart break and sorrow they finally realized that no matter how good things look on paper, no matter how hard you trample people to get your way, it doesn’t work. The only way to insure peace and prosperity is to give the people their freedom. They may fall sometimes, but the size of the human heart will amaze and surprise you. We will take care of one another. I think we can all agree that we don’t need a parental government. The government is there to protect our rights through force. Everything the government does is through force or the threat of force. George Washington rightly said “Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. Government is force; like fire it is a dangerous servant -- and a fearful master.”

We voted you in to represent the interests of the American people. We ask only that you look farther ahead then this month or this year. Look at what your actions will mean in the course of a hundred years. What will history books say about you, about our generation? That we took responsibility for our own problems? Thought out of the box and changed the nation for the good? Or will they say instead that we thought only of our own pleasure, that we in effect sold our children into slavery to pay for our own needs, our own wants. Let us rather be the generation like the founding generation. The generation that refused to balk from facing problems head on. The generation that gave their comfort, their security and even their lives to buy us this freedom and prosperity we enjoy. The generation who refused to put off their problems and compound them. Let us not leave a legacy of debt and slavery but prosperity and freedom to our children, grandchildren and great-grand children.

Sincerely,

An American Mother