Saturday, September 12, 2009

A Letter to Lacy

My friends, after much consideration and in an attempt to restore civility to politics, I have sent another email to Lacy Clay. Based upon the information that was sent to me on Thursday, I felt it was worth it. Below, is the exact letter that I sent to Congressman Clay. I hope he does respond. If he does, as I previously committed to, I will post his response here.
Congressman Clay,

Let me introduce myself. I go by Middle Class Joe and I am a North County blogger at http://middleclassmadashell.blogspot.com/. I was just made aware that your sight was having some issues so I am resending you this letter in hopes that you will respond.


I have some very simple questions for you that I would like answered. Seeing as your my representative, I want to ensure that you are representing me and the many people like me in North County and not just my peers in the city.


OK, to the point, here are my questions:


Question 1. We have already lost the Ford plant and many jobs at and around Lambert due to cutbacks at American airlines. I read on your press releases that you backed the "cap and trade" bill. Are you not worried about how this bill will effect industry in St. Louis, especially some of those companies in areas you represent like Boeing and if this bill is so needed, then would you be willing to sponsor an amendment to any future bills or sponsor a new bill that would require the Federal Government be held to the same standard for carbon output as all companies? Please explain your answer in detail.


Question 2. You released a statement stating that you support President Obama and would prefer a public option. My question here is simple. Would you be willing to sponsor an amendment to require that all government employees including current and retired Congressional and Senate members be required to give up their current healthcare plan and move over to the public option should one be created? It is my belief that if the public option is so good, it should be good enough for everyone up to but not including the President and Vice President. My fear is that many companies
will see that the 8% payroll fine will be cheaper to pay than to carry healthcare benefits, therefor forcing more people to lose their insurance and have to go to a public plan.


Today is 9/12. 8 years ago today, it did not matter if you were a Republican or Democrat. The only thing that mattered was you were an American. At this time we threw out partisan politics and worked together to throw aside our differences to come to a fair consensus on the issues. I believe we are in need of that type of
bipartisanship again.


I am a fair person. As I see it, you are my elected representative and I have a right to know what and how you are thinking. Even if I disagree with you, at least we can have an honest debate. Maybe you can show me where I am wrong, and maybe I can show you where you are wrong. We have to be willing to listen to one another.
That is something that is not occurring anymore. Right now, I am offering an olive branch.


I look forward to reading your response.


What do you think?

2 comments:

PatD said...

Site, as in web-site is not spelled "Sight".

Asking if government employees should be forced into the public option is good! Especially if it applies at all levels of government. Even better, let them go first so we can see if Obamacare will work.

Middle Class Joe said...

Good catch. That is what I get for blind trusting spellcheck.