An American citizen expresses his concerns over the U.S. Government taking from hard-working individuals and giving to others:
To the Editor of The Herald Gazette July 2008:
I would like to express my concern over an email I recently received about taxing retirement and gains on 401K. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who by the way is the third in line to be the Commander-In-Chief of our Armed Forces if the others are eliminated, has made a proposal.
Her proposal is a WINDFALL TAX on RETIREMENT INCOME, which means that the people of the United States would be paying more for those doing less. She was asked what this tax would do. her reply was, "We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profit taxes could go a long way to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as Americans."
If Speaker Pelosi wants to help Americans, here is a suggestion. Look at the retirement system for all of our congressman and Senators and adjust it accordingly to that of the American people. For example, put them on the social security and Medicare system as we the people are and see if that doesn't cut the fat out of the pork belly of those serving in office for the money and not the people. A Congressman or Senator that retires, gets his or her full pay and their spouse gets another $100,000 to maintain their living style. This does seem a bit much for us lowly Americans.
I wish any politician can show me or any American citizen why that is required. Who makes the laws for Congress? Who votes for their pay raises? Who makes the rules for the country? these are some things that the next President of the U.S.A. needs to look at, our dollars going down the drain. We need a Congress that will fight for us instead of us fighting for them.
All this I believe to be true to the best of my knowledge.
Herbert P. Barnes
Retired Military
Reagan, TN
I received an email this morning about Dave Walker, who until recently was the US Comptroller General (the government's chief auditor, and head of the 3,000-person US Government Accountability Office).
Well, a few months ago, Dave resigned his post to head up a new effort -- the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. And this nonpartisan foundation is about to begin spending $1 billion to build a grassroots army to convince Washington to finally do something about this problem.
If you're interested in learning more about our plans, please join us in our "How Screwed R U?" conference call with Dave at 2:00 pm EST on Tuesday, July 15th. Dave will provide you with an overview of the problem and what we intend to do about it, and of course, he will be happy to take questions. E-mail me and I'd be happy to send you the call-in info.
Also, our Foundation is supporting a feature documentary called "I.O.U.S.A.," which won acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival and will be released in theaters around the country in August.
You can check out the Peter G. Peterson Foundation yourself. Color me skeptical when the first thing they tell me is they are about to begin SPENDING $1 BILLION dollars ... But that could just be me.
Then there are those who want to reclaim our government (overthrow?)
I am talking about changing this country for the better. Do we have what it takes, or will you all just sit back, ignore what I've said, and return to that barn with all the other mindless sheep? Let us become free again. Let us reclaim our place as citizens of the United States of America, the true leaders of America.
