PLEASE help me respond to this editorial by my senator

[w8liftinglady]

It's all the Democratic Party's fault,you know

Goal for new Congress: Cut spending, taxes
Published: Sunday, January 2, 2011 1:24 AM CST
Kay Bailey Hutchison
U.S. senator

It is often said that: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Congress would be mindful to remember these wise words as we move forward to address the country’s most critical problems in the new session of Congress.

The last Congress, led by an overwhelming Democratic majority in both the House and Senate, pursued a legislative agenda that moved against the tide of public opinion, economic realities, and budget constraints. They forced through a government takeover of our health care system, a failed economic stimulus bill, and tripled the federal deficit. Not surprisingly, unemployment continues to hover near 10 percent.

After nearly two years of rising jobless rates and record deficits, on Nov. 2, 2010, voters said, “enough.” The Democrat leaders in Congress did not prioritize the country’s greatest concerns: job creation and the soaring federal deficit, and many paid the price at the ballot box for out-of-control spending and their role in growing the size of the federal government.

In the final weeks of the 111th Congress, key votes on taxes and spending give us some reason to hope that job-creating policies and fiscal restraint will be priorities moving forward.

During a lame duck session in December, Congress passed a compromise two-year tax agreement which prevented a massive, job-killing tax increase on New Year’s Day. Raising taxes during an economic recession is unthinkable. Although the agreement was not perfect, I believe it was necessary and ultimately a victory for all Americans.

The tax agreement maintains the current tax policy. It blocks higher taxes on capital gains and dividends, extends relief from the marriage penalty, preserves the $1,000 per child tax credit, and protects at least 21 million additional families from the Alternative Minimum Tax. And it also alleviates the burden of the death tax, an egregious policy that punishes families and small businesses for success and ultimately discourages the American dream.

After holding the line on tax increases, Senate Republicans stood united in opposition to the 2,000 page, $1.3 trillion dollar omnibus spending bill. Passage of the omnibus would have cemented spending increases for the next year and tied Republicans hands in the next Congress by making fiscal reforms and budget cuts more difficult.

Later this month, the newly elected Republican majority in the House and the strengthened Republican ranks in the Senate will now have greater influence in future spending decisions. With the start of the new Congress, Republicans have the opportunity to take the lead on budget issues and make the tough yet necessary decisions to cut federal spending and put our country back on a sustainable and responsible fiscal track.

There is much the United States can and should learn from history regarding deficit reduction. In a research study by the American Enterprise Institute, building off the earlier work of two Harvard economists, analyzed the policies employed to fix unsustainable government spending by 21 countries. Their findings clearly show that successful reform efforts to balance budgets were almost entirely done by cutting government spending, while failed attempts predominantly focused on tax increases.

The federal government has been spending at the expense of economic growth and job creation, as well as stability and credibility in global financial markets. Ultimately future generations of Americans will bear the greatest cost. We have an opportunity to restore fiscal sanity to the federal budget and make the tax cuts permanent. This will allow businesses to have certainty for their future planning which will spur hiring and job creation. The American people expect Congress to have learned from the mistakes of the recent past—and not repeat them.



Kay Bailey Hutchison is the senior U.S. Senator from Texas and is the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Dear Senator,

I am so sorry that you have lost your morals. I do hope you can find them soon so you do not go to hell for your lies. How soon you forgot that it was President Bush that started two wars without paying for them, increased the debt when he started out with a surplus, had to pass a bill to save the corrupt banking industry that helped put this country into the mess that we now find ourselves.

How many jobs did Bush lose while he was president?? Where are the jobs that should have been created with the tax cuts to the wealthy that were started on his watch??

[w8liftinglady]

2. That's good-it has a lot of what my first draft does...updated

Senator Hutchison:
You failed to mention the Tax Cuts of 2001 and 2003-during a time of war-that got us into the position we are now in...under your watch.You failed to mention the removal of many safety nets to regulate the banking industry-and the banks nearly destroyed our world economy and required massive bailouts.
The elephants in the room are the two wars we remain in after TEN years.I saw NO comments on that.These wars that cost our nation a trillion dollars a year,failed to care adequately for our troops and veterans until those Democrats took office,and continue to funnel American dollars to foreign countries to this day.
The fact that 50 million Americans are medically uninsured at present is something you choose to add to through repealment and privatization of Medicaid and Medicare....but keep those pharmaceutical profits coming(at the expense of those who can least afford them,thus increasing their hospitalizations).
Continue to allow shipment of American jobs overseas,so that our wages drop as we fight for the left-over scraps...and allow corporations and the wealthiest to base their accounts in Tax Havens and earn more tax deductions while they continue to send their jobs overseas.
I expected so much more from you,Senator Hutchison.You used to have your constituents' best interests at heart.Now,you've resorted to partisan politics.I heard nothing of bipartisanship in your editorial.
Yes,Those who forget the past are destined to repeat it.

[immoderate]

5. I would drop the "socialist" part. The sarcasm will be misunderstood.

The insurance company windfall we just experienced was hardly a overnment takeover.

--imm

[w8liftinglady]

8. good point

[freshwest]

13. Very very good.

[Roselma]

3. Dear Senator Hutchison;

Tax cuts and out-of-control spending took place when the Republicans had control of both houses of Congress. An economic catastrophe happened in 2008 as a result of unregulated financial markets. We don't believe that the wealthy who've had tax cuts for 10 years now have proven that they will allow their money to trickle down into the United States economy. Tax cuts to them have proven to be a failure. Lack of market regulation and oversight of the banking industry over the past 10 years has proven to be ruinous. Please don't revise history to support your own agenda. You're just lying to yourself and to the public. Don't worry, the rich will do just fine even without tax cuts.

[w8liftinglady]

4. excellent-thanks for reminding me about the tax cuts

[MannyGoldstein]

6. I actually agree with the Senator's first point

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

We had six years of the Bush tax cuts, and we lost a huge number of jobs and GDP growth stagnated. Now we've extended them again - and what are we expecting?

We removed virtually all safety regulation from banking. And the banks nearly destroyed our world economy. We still have not re-engaged anywhere near the same degree of safety regulation - and now what are we expecting?

There was this FDR character that came along during the previous depression. He used the government as a tool for good; during FDR's first term, GDP grew 9% yearly and unemployment halved. Not bad. And the economy didn't collapse from the spending. And FDR created strong and simple safety regulations for the banks. And the banks did fine for decades, until we removed those regulations.

I agree: We must learn from history. We must choose FDR over Hoover.

[w8liftinglady]

7. wow...excellent

[MrMickeysMom]

9. Here... I'll give you this link rather than my own words...

http://www.americaforpurchase.com/republicans/texas-does-not-want-kay-bailey-hutchison-as-governor/

Apparently a year ago, it was said best by the people "her own" State - Texas. They didn't dig what she stood for, either!

I particularly agree with this part:

Hutchison voted for 98 % of all Federal spending bills and to raise the national debt ceiling 10 times to $12.1 trillion which has nearly tripled since she became Senator.
Hutchison voted with George W Bush 90% of the time, nearly ten percentage points greater than the average Republican in Congress. (Source: Washington Post)

[rocktivity]

10. What's her e-mail adress? We should all write her and take this apart point by point.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Well, here's what I remember:

The tide of public opinion favored health insurance and finance industry reform, not to mention the repeal of DADT.

A stimulus bill would have worked better if Republicans hadn't undermined it with tax cuts.

The jobless and deficit rates have been for the past TEN years--that is, since George Bush and his tax cuts were in power. r

The Republican party created the deficit. Before Bush came into office, there was a surplus.

You get the idea.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[w8liftinglady]

12. here's her contact info

http://hutchison.senate.gov/contact.cfm

[Jack Rabbit]

11. A four-year-old child could refute this.

The last Congress, led by an overwhelming Democratic majority in both the House and Senate, pursued a legislative agenda that moved against the tide of public opinion, economic realities, and budget constraints. They forced through a government takeover of our health care system, a failed economic stimulus bill, and tripled the federal deficit. Not surprisingly, unemployment continues to hover near 10 percent.

She's partly right about the last Congress moving against the tide of public opinion. This was especially true of the Senate. Public opinion supported a public option in the health care bill, but Republicans and corporate-purchased Democrats got together to kill it.

What the Republicans are pushing now is against any economic reality. They want to go back to the policies of top heavy tax cuts and deregulation. Where did that get us under Bush? The return to his policies is simply insane. What should make anybody think trying that again will result in anything different?

And why does Senator Hutchinson even dare to bring up budget constraints? Where was she when Bush and Cheney fought a war on terror inefficiently and wastefully, especially by going into Iraq? And putting it all on the national credit card (made in China)?

As for as government takeover of the the health care system, don't we wish there had been such a thing? Last time I looked, private health insurance companies still had no public competition and were still acted in concert like a monopoly. They take the premiums we pay and return nothing. That's not as business; that's a racket. A public option was the only way to make the private insurance rackets do what they're supposed to do: pay out benefits to people who pay premiums. If they can't make a profit running an honest business, they shouldn't be in business in the first place.

Exactly how did the economic stimulus fail? Unemployment may still be at 10 percent, but the number of jobs increased at least to the levels they were at before the effects of Bush policies brought the chickens home to roost and we were looking at the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The only problem with the stimulus is that it was too weak. We need more New Deal-like programs, not fewer.

I think you can fill the above in with supporting facts and take it from there.

[Sheepshank]

14. Dear Senator,

I read you very first paragraph...and didn't need to read any further, it was awesome!!


It is often said that: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Congress would be mindful to remember these wise words as we move forward to address the country’s most critical problems in the new session of Congress.

I immediately remembered Bush and the state he dragged this country into. I remember the debts, the lies, the humiliation. I remember the downward spiral of the economy and the job market. That was a wonderful reminder of what we must remember so we don't repeat it.

So for the hell of it I decided to read the rest. OMG, you forgot the past! You had the greatest start and ruined the whole piece with some contorted, convoluted reasoning. Too bad, this could have been a great piece of writing.

[w8liftinglady]

15. lol...that was great!

[sabrina 1]

20. Lol, that is excellent! 'Omg, you forgot the past!'

:rofl:

[toddwv]

16. Scariest part of that letter to the editor:

"Kay Bailey Hutchison is the senior U.S. Senator from Texas and is the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation."

After the abysmal performance of the Republicans' economic ideology (assuming, of course, that you are focusing on the general population and not multinat corporations), there should be laws against Republicans being involved in anything that can potentially affect the US's economic future.

With their current anti-science stance, Republicans shouldn't be allowed anywhere near anything with any control over science.

The US needs more public transportation. It helps mitigate the disastrous effects of an oil market controlled by people who don't always have America's best interest at heart. Unfortunately, the Republicans are quite happy retaining our big oil-friendly infrastructure even though we have seen that it is perhaps our greatest threat to national security.

So Kay Bailey Hutchison is a triple threat.

[w8liftinglady]

17. man-you've got that right...they control education AND science.

scary....

[BadGimp]

18. I recommend a strong start..

maybe a b i t over the top ...

[w8liftinglady]

19. LOL..it's hard not to,but I better restrain myself

[Riftaxe]

21. This part at least is hard to argue with

The Democrat leaders in Congress did not prioritize the country’s greatest concerns: job creation and the soaring federal deficit, and many paid the price at the ballot box for out-of-control spending and their role in growing the size of the federal government.

I have no doubt that it was major contribution into why we lost seats in the last election. It was such a low priority that many politicians did not even bother with the usual lies and vague rhetoric on how they were "looking" into creating jobs.

on Edit, the deficit not so much. But with ~10% unemployment and politicians focusing on gaining ~30M new customers for insurance companies while ignoring the unemployed, it is not surprising that it bit them on the ass. After all, everyone knows someone who is unemployed.

[upi402]

22. Pepper the BS with nuggets of truth

and the idjits swallow it whole

[Riftaxe]

23. Pardon?

Perhaps another try, only this time in english?

Are you arguing that the unemployment rate has not hovered between 8-10% in the last 2 years? Or are you arguing that Health Insurance companies are by way of the HCR gaining new customers?

Hell, they had the option of at least supplying a public option in many ways that have been hashed to death on this board, but decided against going any of those routes.

[upi402]

26. 1. The Senator was full of shit

2. There was an excerpt from you... The excerpted statement by the Senator was claimed to be valid by you, correct?

3. I was agreeing with you and making the point - I guess wrongly assuming general understanding - that conservatives add a grain of truth to flavor the bullshit that they feed their idjit (idiot) voters.

better?

[w8liftinglady]

24. thanks,everyone.I'll let you know if they print my reply

[Hamlette]

25. There are two facts Republicans don't want you to know.

1. Americans pay more for health care than in any other country on earth yet the US ranks 37th in quality of care. Yes, people in 36 countries have better health care than in the US yet they pay less.

2. The US debt was created by Reagan and George W Bush. While Reagan was president the debt tripled. When George W Bush took over the debt was $5 Trillion, when he left office it was $10 Trillion and for most of his years in office Republicans controlled Congress too. Yes, one half of the US debt was created by Bush. In large part this is because he put his two wars "off budget" just like the GOP wants to put tax cuts "off budget" now. No one wants to pay taxes but no one wants to go without the services government provides. Republicans know this so they keep cutting your taxes and increasing services and pushing the problems off to another generation.

(As a side note, my son worked for a summer in DC. His job was to monitor the Senate. He spent all his time watching and reading everything said publicly by every Senator. He said the two worst were DeMint and Hutchinson. Odd because Kay has a reputation as a "moderate". He said those two never once said anything of substance. Every time they spoke it was to trash Democrats. He said they were the most mindless partisans in the Senate by a long shot.)

[w8liftinglady]

27. soooo...they printed my response.I'm back to being the neighborhood socialist again.

at least they bothered to read it.
sigh.