Here’s a note I received today from my Congressman, John Culberson (R-TX07). It’s a form reply, so I don’t feel any compunction about sharing it with you.
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:48:23 -0400
Subject: Continuing Resolution 2011Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns regarding the FY2011 Continuing Resolution.
Last week I voted along with my Republican colleagues in the House to approve the largest spending cuts since World War II. These cuts take $38.5 billion away from President Obama’s expense account and slam the brakes on his outrageous spending programs. We have rolled back some of the president’s key policy initiatives by defunding one provision of Obamacare, reducing another by half, eliminating four of President Obama’s unconstitutional czars, and securing up or down votes in the Senate on repealing Obamacare and cutting off taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood.
While I realize $38.5 billion is not nearly enough and we have to cut much more from the budget, we are moving in the right direction. As we begin debate on the 2012 budget, I look forward to sweeping cuts and to reforming entitlement spending by far the leading contributor to our massive deficitswithout increasing taxes or placing additional burdens on the American taxpayers. Looking ahead, the Path to Prosperity will eliminate $6.2 trillion of spending over the next decade, compared to President Obama’s halfhearted proposal to cut $4 trillion in the next 12 years. The legislation we passed last week sets the stage for massive budget cuts that will herald a new era of fiscal responsibility.
The budget battle in Congress has only just begun. We must continue to remind President Obama and the Democrats in Congress that Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.
Thank you for entrusting me to represent you in the United States Congress. Please visit my website at www.culberson.house.gov.
Sincerely,
John Culberson
Member of CongressConstance Seré
Legislative Correspondent
Congressman John Culbersonhttp://culberson.house.gov
(202) 225-2571
The red italics are mine, indicating the central turd in that crock of shit. I replied, with gritted teeth, as follows:
Thanks for your reply, but I don’t find it acceptable.
We both know that the real cuts in that budget you approved were less than a $billion. You cannot pretend, with letters like this, that you are actually doing anything substantial to forestall a federal bankruptcy. We are paying attention not to what you say, but to what you actually do. Business as usual is not the answer.
To put it bluntly, it’s time to quit screwing around.
I expect to see your Yea vote on a minimum of between $1 and $2 TRILLION in real cuts before the next election. Not billion, trillion. Not 12 years, 1 year.
Start voting with Mr. West and Ms. Bachmann and not with the GOP leadership that are behaving like progressive-light.
It’s simple, stop spending. Roll back spending. And while you are at it, tell the Fed to stop printing money, too. If you don’t do that by the next election, you will be trying to explain to us why you didn’t do enough to stop the federal government bankruptcy. You don’t want to be in that position.
Thanks for your service. Now please make it count … for the good of the country … for the survival of the country.
I expect that is probably not enough to get me a visit from the FBI, but I also don’t expect a “Yes, sir!” reply either.
It’s not clear why I care enough to bother with these people anymore. Perhaps some small part of me imagines that Culberson is not a bad guy and if he had a revelation, perhaps he might do some good. Naah, what am I thinking? That’s just ridiculous.
And in other news, Gold is over $1500, Silver is pushing $50, and it was just announced that the gov pays out more in entitlements and other handouts (extra-constitutional stuff) than it takes in in taxes.
Perhaps they think they are selling women’s clothing. To sell an item that cost $20 for $40 it is retailed for $200, put on sale for $125, red tagged for $80, and closed out for $40. Such a deal. At least the process is finished in a few months, not ten years.
We don’t want to know what politicians so-called budgets do over many years, we want to know what they are doing this year, and that is all we want to know. And that is exactly why they do not want to talk about it.
Shoot James, most people aren’t even interested in this year’s budget, much less the long view.
The country’s citizens aren’t paying attention. The folks who blog or consume online politics are minnows in a great ocean of ignorant apathy.
I wouldn’t count on the FBI or HSA not taking an online peek in your frustrated direction, Ken. If they’ll follow this tiny, mild blog, anybody’s game.
They follow your blog? Somebody is paid to follow your blog? They can pay me to do that. Is this the FIB or some other alphabet soup?
Como esta, James?
An IT friend dug around my computer and told me a couple of government agencies had me bird-dogged. HSA in particular.
His best guess was a two-year old on rant on muslims combined with my support of the Oath Keepers caught their roving eye.
I’d much rather pay you to monitor my online house of rebel anarchy, James. I expect you’d be a much cheaper and more lenient overlord.
I don’t know what the Fed’s expect to find – I’m a squeaky clean citizen.
I am a little more paranoid than usual today having read this lovely post earlier.
Doubtless I am on the domestic terrorist list due to my posts over at that other place (click my name, above), among other things. Also, I would imagine that the various 3-letter agencies automatically monitor and classify email going to any .gov address.
There is no such thing as being too small a fish on the internet. I assume that everything from my Facebook friends to my Google Reader subscriptions to my Amazon purchases is thoroughly logged and scored. You think your FICO score is opaque? Hell, your domestic terrorist score doesn’t even officially exist.
On a lighter note, I heard for the first time today, the LeAnn Rimes song with the lyrics
He told his friends she was depressed
Borderline bi-polar, bitch with PMS.
That turned my head.
It’s a good point about the ten-year and twelve-year plans. You look at the chart you find here and…why would you listen as someone tells you, don’t worry, in ten years we’ll snip such-and-such an amount? Who in his right mind, in 2007, would have predicted we’d spend as much as we did in 2009?
What’s wrong with just taking the 2008 figure and saying — that’s it for ’12, ’13, 14. Would that really cause so much pain, limiting it to what was spent a mere three years ago?
I realize a lot of what’s in the budget is called “non-discretionary.” That’s all the more reason. Interest payments on the escalating debt make up a lot of this non-discretionary.
Just heard on the local TV news teaser …
“Gas may go to $6. Hear who’s to blame, tonight at 10!”
That’s a paraphrase but only slightly and only because my BP spiked enough to affect short term memory. Plus I was yelling at the TV.
That is, of course, what passes for analysis in most of the media. The “fill in the blank” are responsible … let’s get ‘em!
As long as they treat our economic collapse this way we can’t really expect anyone to take it seriously.
[...] Uncle Kenny dealt with it this way. [...]
My CONgressional critter sent me the same letter and I sent basically the same response- had to remind him he’s supposed to be working for us since we elected him on his promises to make a difference. Obviously, the new kids on the block have already swilled the DC koolaid. They need to learn where their bread is buttered before they find themselves on the OpFor list and fair game when hunting season opens.
Shy III
Jimmy, you are a little bit over the line there, at least for this peaceful forum. Please feel free to hang around, but dial back the threats. You wouldn’t want us to think you were an agent provocateur or otherwise dangerous to have around. Thanks.