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With any luck I will reply to enough replies to this thread to put me over 10,000 posts. So I thought I would celebrate by posting my recent writing. First, this LTTE which I "hid" in the DU lounge where it only got 200 views and a couple recommends (thanks mom and dad :hi: (just kidding, they don't really post here))
At the candidates forum in Leavenworth on Saturday, Congressman Ryun seemed to stress two things. First, that he brought federal dollars to Leavenworth, and second that he believes in tax cuts. Apparently the new Republican philosophy is "borrow and spend". Should pork buy a re-election or did that money come to Leavenworth based on the merit of those projects?
Should we fund them with borrowed money? Nobody likes a tax increase, but spending borrowed money means you will pay much more in the long run. That $1000 child tax credit will be paid back by your children, with interest. Worse yet, that tax credit is a drop in the bucket compared to the tax cut that went to Bill Gates types.
A simple example should illustrate that. For my taxable income of $19,000 my taxes were $1718.25 in 2001 and $1278.25 in 2005. A tax cut of $440. Then there's my Uncle Charlie (not really a relative). According to Forbes, Charles Koch was worth $4.5 billion in 2005 and worth $12 billion in 2006. Let me estimate that his income is $10 million. Then, in 2001 his taxes were $3.887 million and in 2005 they were $3.48 million. A tax cut of $407,000. Jim Ryun does not want to talk about that. He calls it class warfare to point out the fact that he and his fellow Republicans are giving large benefits to people like my uncle Charlie.
Ryun seems to believe that there is no way to create a tax cut to save me $440 without also saving a $10 millionaire $400 thousand! He would also have you believe that there is no way to eliminate the tax cut for the $10 millionaires without also eliminating the tax cut for people like me. He is wrong on both counts. Ryun may call it class warfare, but I think that tax cuts and other laws should benefit ordinary Americans more than they benefit the very wealthy. I am proud to fight for ordinary working people, that's why I have been working to elect Nancy Boyda. She promises to fight against big money control of Congress. Ryun denies that big money is in control, while he claims that tax cuts that give $400,.000 to multi-millionaires actually benefit you and me. They do, a little bit, but they benefit the rich much more. Those are the people Ryun has been working for when he should have been working for you and me."
This appeared with two other anti-Ryun letters and created the response from somebody I will call Ryunfan, who wrote a letter which began:
"In their letters, (Friday) Mr. Redacted and Mr. hfojvt denounce Congressman Ryun for obtaining money to improve facilities at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley. Do these individuals believe that our soldiers should not have decent barracks, that military families should not have adequate childcare facilities, that the Army does not need a modern high-tech facility to test tactical concepts, communications, and control measures for current and future battlefields? Do they not understand the military necessity of a division headquarters that is equipped with the latest technological advances to enable commanders to train, equip and organize forces to deploy and fight?"
He then went on at some length to criticize Mr. Redacted's letter, but I took that opening kinda personal (typical me), but also saw it as an attempt to say "Democrats do not support the military, or understand what the military needs." So I spent a couple hours writing this response that very night and it was printed in saturday's paper. I hit on the tax issue because the RNC is running ads against both McCaskill and Boyda saying "they will raise your taxes". So I make the point that our plan is more about raising the taxes of Charles Koch, Bill Gates, and Alice Walton (who BTW donated 2.6 million to Bush's re-election campaign PAC). Also since Bush is coming here to campaign for Ryun today I thought I would bring him in.
"I object to Mr. Ryunfan's outrageous attack on me in his letter in Thursday's Times. I did not "denounce Congressman Ryun for obtaining money to improve facilities at Fort Leavenworth" and to suggest that I might not "believe that our soldiers should have decent barracks ..." or that I "do not understand the military necessity ..." are strawman arguments. They attempt to put words in my mouth that I never said nor implied.
My question was, and is, if that money should be seen the way Kiper and Ryun paint it - as Congressman Ryun's personal gift to our district. Presumably the military asked for what it needed and wanted and most of Congress voted to give it to them. However, if Ryun went above and beyond to get money for projects that the military did not think were a priority, then that's pork designed to pad Congressman Ryun's resume, more than do what's best for America. National debt has almost doubled since Bush took office with a 5 trillion dollar projected surplus, and Republican spending on earmarks, or pork, is part of the problem. I expect Nancy Boyda to be a better steward of our tax dollars, and since her husband is a Marine, she will not short-change our troops.
However, Ryun and Bush already have. In May of 2003 the 2nd Bush tax cut was passed. It increased the child tax credit from $600 to $1000 per child. It also saved Alice Walton, for example, something like $40 million in taxes on her Wal-mart dividends. The child credit is great, except for one thing - a family of four making less than $31,850 ($37,850 if they maxed their IRA contribution) was already paying no income taxes (but still paying $2436 in FICA taxes). So they got nothing from that tax cut which Ryun and Bush want to brag about.
Senate Democrats added a provision to make that credit refundable so those lower income families would get an extra $800, but Republicans got rid of that, in House-Senate conference, with no protest from either Bush or Ryun. Matt Bivens wrote in "The Daily Outrage" - "Of the 12 million children excluded from the increased child tax credit in the President's tax cut, over 1 million are the children of military servicemen and veterans. Of these, 260,000 children have a parent currently on active duty."
Later, House Republicans did vote to extend the child tax credit to families making over $120,000 a year. Bush and Ryun and the Republican Congress have been ignoring and short-changing ordinary working Americans while they cater to the wealthy. That is what I said, and what I understand and believe. No amount of pork, or even commendable funding for worthwhile projects, is going to change those facts - $40,000,000 for Alice Walton, and nothing for the 260,000 children of lower income soldiers. Under Ryun and Bush, no billionaires are left behind, but lots of children are. Congressional Republicans are not living up to the values of Republican voters. It's time they were held accountable."
As for the line about Republican voters. I kinda wish I had said Kansas voters, but I wanted to make the point that I may be bashing Bush, Ryun and Republican Senators and Representatives in general, but not necessarily Republican voters. That Republican voters are better than that, but simply are not aware how dishonest their elected Republicans are. You Republicans can prove you are better than that on November 7th - don't let your country down this time.
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