Letter to Elected Officials

Here is the letter I wrote to my State and Federal Elected officials. I think everyone should follow suit and write theirs.

Dear Elected Officials,

I have not written to you or any of my members of congress before because, quite frankly, I don’t believe that anyone in Washington, or any other legislator for that matter, is really listening to anything we, as your constituents, have to say nor have we actually seen any actions to indicate that any Elected official really cares.

The purpose of this letter is to finally put a voice to all my frustrations but, I speak for the millions of Americans that share my feelings in the hopes that someone would finally show that they really do care and that we aren’t just the door mats that many of us feel we have become.

I am 47 years old and unemployed, disabled, have minimal medical and dental benefits and, not for lack of trying, can not find a job no matter how hard I try.

My main field of employment for the last 20+ years has been in Customer Service working in call centers in nearly every conceivable area of Customer Service. However, thanks to the irresponsibility of our government, all the jobs that I am qualified for have either been sent overseas or are not paying enough to allow the common person to survive.

The last job I had was paying only $10.50 per hour, ironically, supporting Unemployment Benefits for the state of Florida. With my mortgage, utilities and other bills, I barely got by and there were many times that I had to go without paying some bills just to be able to eat. The end result is that I had to file for bankruptcy and start all over again. I hate it because it made me feel like a failure and to a great extent, I still feel that way.

Now that I am jobless, I’m still having trouble getting by because the pathetic $275 per week that I am getting from Unemployment is not even covering my mortgage and unless I can find a job that pays well enough, I may end up losing my home.

I am also disabled. I have an injury to my leg that prevents me from standing or walking for long periods without a great deal of pain and need to use a cane to move around. I can not apply for certain jobs because, even if I am hired for a job such as a cook, which I am good at, I cannot do the job because it requires that I stand for long periods of time. furthermore, Without proper medical care, it will only get worse.

Even with my doctor's recommendation, I do not qualify for disability through SSI or SSDI. When I applied, I was told that, because I am still capable of performing some jobs, I do not qualify for even minimal benefits. To be honest, I wasn’t applying for the sake of the money, although it would help, I was merely trying to establish the fact that I am disabled. I am certainly capable of taking care of myself physically, to a certain extent, but having the disability and the medical coverage would have helped a great deal.

You may not be aware of this but, many employers do not want a person like me working for them. Although they will never admit it, they are afraid that having me in their office, even if I am more than qualified and capable of performing the tasks, would increase their liability. I have sat through many interviews where I can tell by their faces, they are not concerned with my skills, all they see is my cane. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?

I want to also address this congress’s inability to work together to take care of those of us who put so much faith in you. You, and I mean this as a collective, have done absolutely nothing to assist the greatest majority of Americans. When I say nothing, I do not exaggerate.

Tax cuts for the wealthy, are you kidding me? When I was working, my tax rate was about 21% (that's the average I used when determining my budget) and that was at $10.50 per hour. I still find it hard to believe that I have to pay taxes on my unemployment at 10% when it was tax dollars that pay for the benefit to begin with. Isn't that “double-dipping”? And I still have to pay for my own medical bills.

No tax cuts for the rich...EVER! There is no logic in it. We have already seen that all the rich do is pocket the extra money, they are not building jobs with it. They buy boats, houses, nice cars and Armani Suits. They don't care about the people that work for them or building jobs. They are perfectly content to increase their profit margins so that they can have the good life.

I have a pretty simple formula for a tax rate that won’t send a person into convulsions to try to understand. Based on annual earnings, we could tax like this:

$0 to 10,000 = 1%
$20,000 to 50,000 = 3%
$50,000 to 75,000 = 6%
$75,000 to 100,000 = 15%
$100,000 to 200,000 = 20%
200,000 and 500,000 = 30%
$500,000 + = 40%

Companies that farm their workforce out overseas or that bring in people from foreign countries to work here in the US need to be penalized and taxed extra (I recommend up to 50%) simply because these actions are taking jobs away from those of us that really need the work and are more than willing and capable of doing the work. Yes, give them incentives for creating jobs and hiring those of us that need the jobs, but only AFTER they have created the jobs in the US and hired US Citizens.

You and the rest of our elected officials have to understand that (stating it politely) we are angry. We feel that you are more concerned with your social status than you are about those of us fighting everyday to make a living. The American dream use to be to have a family and own a home. Now, we only dream about how to pay our bills and put food on the table and that dream is becoming a nightmare.

Please, we beg of you to stop and think about what you and the rest of congress are doing to us. You are, in no small way, killing us a little more everyday. We need your help and your compassion. We need to know that you are truly working for us and not just enjoying the good life. We need to know that we can count on you because, no matter what we as your constituents try to do, we have no choice but to trust you.

Even if we put someone else in office, we have no actual way of knowing they will be any better. We don’t know if they are going to keep their promises and for many of us, that is heartbreaking.

As I stated before, I’m 47 years old, I have served in the US Army. I have spent my life defending this country and it's ideals but, I can’t count the number of times I have just sat down and cried, literally, because I don’t know how I’m going to survive and I can not continue to live like this. Please, help us!

Sincerely yours,