Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

     In your last Radio Address, you gave a list of what Americans are worried about.  Your list was fine, as far as that goes, but your solutions were all wrong.  This is because you didn’t look behind the list.  Here’s your list:

  1.  Energy prices

  2.  Food prices

  3.  Mortgage payments

  4.  Tax bills

 

You suggest 1. nuclear power and Alaskan oil.  2.  A “quick fix” farm bill.  

3.  a totally inadequate reform of the FHA.  4.  Making the tax cuts permanent.

 

This is how I see it:  Energy prices are skyrocketing because of the lethally weak dollar and because of the wars in the Middle East.  Food prices are soaring because of the rising energy prices involved in transport and because bio-fuels are eating up land that should be used for good food.  Mortgage payments threaten because of iniquitous loan sharks hiding in brand name banks, but also because the dollar is worth so little that people just can no longer afford their payments. 

 

And finally, the dollar is worth so little because of the huge deficits you have caused by our futile wars, which you cannot pay for outright because of the tax cuts you now so blithely want to make permanent.

 

Clearly what we need is an end to the costly war, an end to the costly tax cuts, investment in alternative energy, and a reduction in our proflagate use of fossile fuels.  And if we can so generously require other countries to “forgive” their loans to Iraq, well, how about requiring some of our banks to “forgive” too?  Then maybe we could “forgive” the banks for their unwonted foreclosures!

 

Sincerely, VNV