Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Monday, August 5, 2013
July 30, 2013 Letter to my Congressmen
July 30, 2013
Senator Michael Bennett
458 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Senator Bennett:
I have serious concerns in a number of areas, which require your attention.
Student loan interest rates
It's beyond ludicrous that anybody still makes the argument that we can never cut defense but we can cut education. The truth is that we CAN afford to cut defense but we CANNOT afford to cut education. If we cut education, in fifty years (and maybe sooner) we will be so stacked with idiots with low-paying jobs that we won't have enough money to pay for defense. -George Carlin (redacted)
Senator Reed has introduced The Keep Student Loans Affordable Act to extend the 3.4% student loan interest rate for another year. Unlike some of the other bills in Congress, his bill will actually make things better for students.
America is already facing a student debt crisis, and high student loan interest rates have created a drag on our economy. Over two-thirds of all college students currently borrow in order to finance their education and Americans now owe more than $1 trillion on student loans.
Corporations can bankrupt out of health and pension plans, even when paid for by employees or were part of their compensation ... but student loans are not eligible for discharge. Wall Street gets bailed out but Main Street gets bailed on.
Please make college affordable for students and support The Keep Student Loan Affordable Act (S.1238). We need to keep student loan interest rates low.
Other reforms should include:
Security
Liberty without learning is always in peril and learning without liberty is always in vain. -JFK
Anyone who would trade their freedom for safety deserves neither freedom or safety. -Benjamin Franklin
You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass. -Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Japanese Navy WWII).
Maybe if we stopped killing them, they might stop killing us.
The entirety of Homeland Security, NSA, etc. is the perpetual hunt for the bogeyman and provides very marginal benefits. It is the politics of fear designed to subjugate the masses. STOP IT! The Patriot Act needs to be repealed in its entirety and Homeland Security dismantled. TSA could be toned down as well ... some of their practices are outrageous.
"The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. One path we shall never choose is the path of surrender, or submission." -JFK
Please support the Amash amendment to curtail domestic surveillance when it comes up for a vote this week. The Nugent amendment does not stop current surveillance activities so voting for it does not demonstrate a commitment to the Fourth Amendment.
Social Security
Any across the board cuts or adjustments in CPI calculations predominantly hurt those least able to withstand the pain. Any cuts to SS should be only for those with incomes in excess of ... say $250,000 per year. Pick a reasonable number but some means testing is long overdue. Additionally, it's long past time to lift the wage cap. These two changes would dramatically improve the long term viability of the system.
Representatives Alan Grayson (D, FL-9) and Mark Takano (D, CA-41) are recruiting members of Congress to a letter stating: “We will vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits -- including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need.” I would encourage you to endorse that letter as well as the Cicilline Resolution.
Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Mark Begich (D-AK) have proposed legislation that would:
This legislation that would strengthen the system and increase benefits. I would urge that you support this legislation.
ObamaCare aka The Affordable Health Care Act
I fully support health care for all of our citizens. I believe it should be the same for pauper and president alike. I believe in a single payer system. Prices should be motivated by economics but not driven by greed. ObamaCare pandered to the medical, legal and insurance lobbies without regard for the rest of us. You absolutely must fix the health care/insurance system in this county. It is an outrage that THE first world country does not and cannot take care of its people ... ALL of its people.
Regulated monopolies have survived and thrived in the past.
Sequester
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. -JFK
Those who refused to stop sequester are ignorant, insensitive and irresponsible. The amount of money you are "saving" is miniscule ... the hardships being created are monumental. For example, the Hospice of Saint John in Lakewood, one of the nation’s older inpatient centers for easing death, is closing after 35 years, victim to federal sequestration cuts and thin health care margins (Denver Post July 6, 2013). Looking for cuts ... military spending, foreign aid and other financial support for large corporations, who do not need it.
Taxes
Senators Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch proposed a “blank slate” approach to tax reform. We ask that you support only tax provisions that adhere to these four points:
It’s time to stop tax dodging by corporations and the wealthy, and invest in our people and communities.
I hope none of you are delusional enough to believe that lowering taxes on the "rich" will produce jobs and benefit the economy. Corporations now only invest/reinvest when it is profitable. That is why by some accounts $4 to $6 Trillion are "sitting on the sidelines" ... so to speak. The public sector must have the funds to handle the rest.
Gun Control
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms .... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants. They serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. -Thomas Jefferson
Most acts of violence by the use of guns are/were against law(s) already on the books.
Maybe ... just maybe ... if we spend more on mental health and less on war (i.e. set a better example) these acts might diminish. Anyone that thinks gun control is going to solve the problem is delusional.
Campaign Reform
These comments are last but NOT least. While any comments here may be wasted, Congress (all of Congress) is clearly in the pockets of the monied class (banks, corporations, etc. included) with two few willing to risk re-election by doing the right thing.
It has been said that "character" is doing the right thing even when nobody is watching. It is long past time for ALL of you to live up to the paradigm of a citizen legislature by doing what is right ... not what will get you re-elected. It is no surprise that this Congress has the lowest approval rating in the history of Congress. At best you are viewed as collectively incompetent ... at worst as collectively criminal, "bought and paid for."
Minimum Wage
You must support the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which raises the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and provides the first increase to tipped employees in more than 20 years. It also indexes the minimum wage to the cost of living.
Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would boost the paychecks of over 30 million workers in the U.S. The majority are adults with full-time jobs, and nearly half have some college education.
If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation since 1968, it would be $10.60 today, not $7.25. By indexing the minimum wage to inflation, this bill prevents the annual erosion of the buying power of millions of hard-working Americans.
The tipped minimum wage ($2.13 an hour) has lost 40 percent of its value since 1991. Over the past 22 years, Congress has voted to increase its pay 13 times.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 will generate $30 billion in economic activity and create 140,000 new jobs over three years.
On July 24th, a national coalition of community advocates, workers, online activists, faith and business leaders are joining for a National Day of Action to Raise Up America, calling on elected officials and low-wage employers to take immediate action to raise wages for millions of America's lowest-paid workers.
I personally would favor raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour or more ... maybe even as high as $20. Cosco (average wage reported at $17 per hour) is proof that companies can be profitable while paying their employees a decent living wage. Imagine people being able to pay rent, buy groceries and get health care with less or no government help. And paying taxes. What a concept! Dummy up! Only the most moronic among you would opine that someone could live in any metropolitan area earning $7.25 per hour.
Banking
You should support Senator Warren's "21st Century Glass-Steagall Act." The first one should have never been abandoned. This may be as essential to our long term financial security as anything you might do as Members of Congress.
Finally
The resurrection of the middle class is of paramount importance. Stability is precipitated by a large and economically viable middle class.
JFK said that "there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it."
Certainly one of the more important traditions has been the existence of that broad center of the body politic ... and the absence of oligarchy. However, the very wealthy, the "too big to fail" banks and corporations and the military industrial complex are now the ruling class.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, "The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope."
To some of you who may read this letter ... or have it read by staff ... I am "preaching to the choir." The others ... well you know who you are. We are at the crossroads ... the future depends on your leadership.
Senator Michael Bennett
458 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Senator Bennett:
I have serious concerns in a number of areas, which require your attention.
Student loan interest rates
It's beyond ludicrous that anybody still makes the argument that we can never cut defense but we can cut education. The truth is that we CAN afford to cut defense but we CANNOT afford to cut education. If we cut education, in fifty years (and maybe sooner) we will be so stacked with idiots with low-paying jobs that we won't have enough money to pay for defense. -George Carlin (redacted)
Senator Reed has introduced The Keep Student Loans Affordable Act to extend the 3.4% student loan interest rate for another year. Unlike some of the other bills in Congress, his bill will actually make things better for students.
America is already facing a student debt crisis, and high student loan interest rates have created a drag on our economy. Over two-thirds of all college students currently borrow in order to finance their education and Americans now owe more than $1 trillion on student loans.
Corporations can bankrupt out of health and pension plans, even when paid for by employees or were part of their compensation ... but student loans are not eligible for discharge. Wall Street gets bailed out but Main Street gets bailed on.
Please make college affordable for students and support The Keep Student Loan Affordable Act (S.1238). We need to keep student loan interest rates low.
Other reforms should include:
- Restoration of basic consumer protections, such as bankruptcy rights and statutes of limitations on the collections of student loan debt;
- The right to refinance student loans so as to allow borrowers to take advantage of historically low interest rates;
- Elimination of the $2,500 cap on the deductibility of student loan interest paid;
- Elimination of the practice of interest capitalization on student loan debt;
- The ability to consolidate private student loans with federal loans; and
- Making all federal and private student loans eligible for income-driven repayment programs, such as Pay As You Earn, that limits payments to ten percent of income and provides forgiveness after 20 years.
Security
Liberty without learning is always in peril and learning without liberty is always in vain. -JFK
Anyone who would trade their freedom for safety deserves neither freedom or safety. -Benjamin Franklin
You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass. -Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Japanese Navy WWII).
Maybe if we stopped killing them, they might stop killing us.
The entirety of Homeland Security, NSA, etc. is the perpetual hunt for the bogeyman and provides very marginal benefits. It is the politics of fear designed to subjugate the masses. STOP IT! The Patriot Act needs to be repealed in its entirety and Homeland Security dismantled. TSA could be toned down as well ... some of their practices are outrageous.
"The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. One path we shall never choose is the path of surrender, or submission." -JFK
Please support the Amash amendment to curtail domestic surveillance when it comes up for a vote this week. The Nugent amendment does not stop current surveillance activities so voting for it does not demonstrate a commitment to the Fourth Amendment.
Social Security
Any across the board cuts or adjustments in CPI calculations predominantly hurt those least able to withstand the pain. Any cuts to SS should be only for those with incomes in excess of ... say $250,000 per year. Pick a reasonable number but some means testing is long overdue. Additionally, it's long past time to lift the wage cap. These two changes would dramatically improve the long term viability of the system.
Representatives Alan Grayson (D, FL-9) and Mark Takano (D, CA-41) are recruiting members of Congress to a letter stating: “We will vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits -- including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need.” I would encourage you to endorse that letter as well as the Cicilline Resolution.
Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Mark Begich (D-AK) have proposed legislation that would:
- Increase cost of living adjustments (COLAs), not decrease them. Instead of cutting benefits through a Chained CPI formula, Senators Harkin and Begich have proposed using a benefit formula designed specifically to take into account seniors’ rising living expenses such as healthcare, food, and housing.
- Ensure that the wealthy are paying their fair share into Social Security. Currently, Americans are only paying Social Security payroll taxes on their first $113,700. That means that Wall Street CEOs are not paying the same rate as the rest of us. By lifting the payroll tax cap on Social Security, we can extend the life of Social Security for decades to come.
- Increase Social Security benefits for almost all recipients by approximately $70 per month, or $800 a year. Senator Harkin’s bill would reform the benefit formula for all beneficiaries, but target those most in need. This would result in an across the board benefit increase, with the most going to those in the lower and middle classes.
This legislation that would strengthen the system and increase benefits. I would urge that you support this legislation.
ObamaCare aka The Affordable Health Care Act
I fully support health care for all of our citizens. I believe it should be the same for pauper and president alike. I believe in a single payer system. Prices should be motivated by economics but not driven by greed. ObamaCare pandered to the medical, legal and insurance lobbies without regard for the rest of us. You absolutely must fix the health care/insurance system in this county. It is an outrage that THE first world country does not and cannot take care of its people ... ALL of its people.
Regulated monopolies have survived and thrived in the past.
Sequester
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. -JFK
Those who refused to stop sequester are ignorant, insensitive and irresponsible. The amount of money you are "saving" is miniscule ... the hardships being created are monumental. For example, the Hospice of Saint John in Lakewood, one of the nation’s older inpatient centers for easing death, is closing after 35 years, victim to federal sequestration cuts and thin health care margins (Denver Post July 6, 2013). Looking for cuts ... military spending, foreign aid and other financial support for large corporations, who do not need it.
Taxes
Senators Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch proposed a “blank slate” approach to tax reform. We ask that you support only tax provisions that adhere to these four points:
- Raise $1 trillion in new revenue from the wealthy and corporations over 10 years and use it to prevent any cuts to critical programs and services, like Social Security, Medicare and education.
- Make corporations pay their fair share of taxes. While corporate profits are at a 60-year high, the average corporate tax rate is just 12.6% - a third of their official tax rate.
- End tax breaks that encourage corporations to ship jobs and profits overseas.
- Eliminate loopholes that benefit primarily the wealthy.
It’s time to stop tax dodging by corporations and the wealthy, and invest in our people and communities.
I hope none of you are delusional enough to believe that lowering taxes on the "rich" will produce jobs and benefit the economy. Corporations now only invest/reinvest when it is profitable. That is why by some accounts $4 to $6 Trillion are "sitting on the sidelines" ... so to speak. The public sector must have the funds to handle the rest.
Gun Control
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms .... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants. They serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. -Thomas Jefferson
Most acts of violence by the use of guns are/were against law(s) already on the books.
Maybe ... just maybe ... if we spend more on mental health and less on war (i.e. set a better example) these acts might diminish. Anyone that thinks gun control is going to solve the problem is delusional.
Campaign Reform
These comments are last but NOT least. While any comments here may be wasted, Congress (all of Congress) is clearly in the pockets of the monied class (banks, corporations, etc. included) with two few willing to risk re-election by doing the right thing.
It has been said that "character" is doing the right thing even when nobody is watching. It is long past time for ALL of you to live up to the paradigm of a citizen legislature by doing what is right ... not what will get you re-elected. It is no surprise that this Congress has the lowest approval rating in the history of Congress. At best you are viewed as collectively incompetent ... at worst as collectively criminal, "bought and paid for."
Minimum Wage
You must support the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which raises the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and provides the first increase to tipped employees in more than 20 years. It also indexes the minimum wage to the cost of living.
Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would boost the paychecks of over 30 million workers in the U.S. The majority are adults with full-time jobs, and nearly half have some college education.
If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation since 1968, it would be $10.60 today, not $7.25. By indexing the minimum wage to inflation, this bill prevents the annual erosion of the buying power of millions of hard-working Americans.
The tipped minimum wage ($2.13 an hour) has lost 40 percent of its value since 1991. Over the past 22 years, Congress has voted to increase its pay 13 times.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 will generate $30 billion in economic activity and create 140,000 new jobs over three years.
On July 24th, a national coalition of community advocates, workers, online activists, faith and business leaders are joining for a National Day of Action to Raise Up America, calling on elected officials and low-wage employers to take immediate action to raise wages for millions of America's lowest-paid workers.
I personally would favor raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour or more ... maybe even as high as $20. Cosco (average wage reported at $17 per hour) is proof that companies can be profitable while paying their employees a decent living wage. Imagine people being able to pay rent, buy groceries and get health care with less or no government help. And paying taxes. What a concept! Dummy up! Only the most moronic among you would opine that someone could live in any metropolitan area earning $7.25 per hour.
Banking
You should support Senator Warren's "21st Century Glass-Steagall Act." The first one should have never been abandoned. This may be as essential to our long term financial security as anything you might do as Members of Congress.
Finally
The resurrection of the middle class is of paramount importance. Stability is precipitated by a large and economically viable middle class.
JFK said that "there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it."
Certainly one of the more important traditions has been the existence of that broad center of the body politic ... and the absence of oligarchy. However, the very wealthy, the "too big to fail" banks and corporations and the military industrial complex are now the ruling class.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, "The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope."
To some of you who may read this letter ... or have it read by staff ... I am "preaching to the choir." The others ... well you know who you are. We are at the crossroads ... the future depends on your leadership.
Respectfully,
______________________________
Ben C. Alexander
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