An Open Letter to President Obama and the Congress

Dear President Obama,

You ran on a platform of hope and change and you were elected based on that platform. Every election represents hope to the voters. We hope that the candidates that we elect keep at least some of their promises. We hope that the candidates that we elect do a good job. We hope that things will get better after the election.

So far Mr. President our hope that you would keep at least some of your promises has been shattered upon the rocks of disappointment. Beginning with your promise of change. What has changed? The bail-outs and squandering of taxpayer money begun under President Bush continues under your administration. The lack of transparency and the stonewalling that was aggressively pursued by the Bush administration continues under your administration. We hoped for a more transparent government and more openness in the governments dealings. We have been disappointed so far because nothing has changed. We had hoped for new people and new faces signally a fresh approach to the countries problems, instead we have been given a lot of the same old names and faces beginning with your Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel. You promised that you would begin winding down the war in Irag and Afghanistan, instead you have continued to pursue the same strategies as the Bush Administration. At a time of economic crisis you have demanded that the American Taxpayers continue to fund these wars without explaining exactly why. You have also continued to placate and support the financial elite while the taxpayers, and especially the middle class, have suffered. Have you read what Elizabeth Warren, who chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel, that is tasked with scrutinizing how the Treasury Department has spent $700 billion to shore up our failing financial institutions, has said about the "assault" on the middle class? ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100800778.html?sub=AR )Like the previous administration you seem to have no idea of the suffering that is going on on Main Street. The only concern of your administration seems to be Wall Street. Your Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, picked from the Fed, seems concerned only with JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Citibank. There is no change from the way that Hank Paulson, picked from Goldman Sachs, conducted Treasury business. You had a chance for a major change by not nominating Ben Bernanke to continue as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, but you chose once again to stay with the status quo, despite the fact that many members of Congress and some of the media (Bloomberg) are very concerned about Mr. Bernanke's and the Fed's secretiveness and reluctance to tell us where our money went (Yes sir it is our money, not the government's and not the Federal Reserve's)! I would think that in the spirit of your campaign promise for more transparency, you would have rebuked Mr. Bernanke and refused to support him.

We hope that the candidates that we elect do a good job. To be fair you still have more than three years left, but your first year has been shaky. Do we really need a President who appears on late night talk shows or rushes off to represent a city in competition to host a future Olympics? And how can we really judge the job you are doing when so much is just a continuation of the previous administration?

We hope that things get better after the election, but are things better? The current promise of recovery is based on huge debt. The country is currently over $11.8 Trillion in debt and counting. Where does it end? How do we repay it? How many generations will end up paying for this debt. Meanwhile the government and corporate America seem to be fixated on coercing taxpayers to spend more and to incur more debt themselves. How does this help, especially in the long run?

Mr. President, you ignited a fire with your charisma and your campaign and your election was truly historical, but the campaign and the election are over. Americans are still losing jobs, those out of work are having great difficulty in finding work, homes are still being foreclosed on, businesses are closing, Americans are still dying in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, older American's are wondering about their survival and younger Americans are worried about their future. In the real world it takes true vision and courage to initiate change and see it through. What can you offer us to give a restored hope and what will truly change? Or will we have to look for someone else with true vision and the courage to initiate true change in 2012?


Dear members of Congress;

Remember us; the voters, the taxpayers, your bosses? A vast majority of us were opposed to the $700 Billion bail-out proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke, but you passed it anyway. The majority of us have been outraged over the various bail-outs including to the car companies, but you passed them anyway. The majority of us would like to see an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but you do nothing to end them. The majority of us would like to see more jobs for Americans and fewer jobs sent overseas, but you have taken no action to encourage the creation of more jobs here or to punish companies who send jobs out of the country. The list goes on and in truth you are more concerned with the special interests you deal with everyday and who can influence you, than with your country and your constituents. Do you remember the past elections where one party gained great power because the other party was viewed as the problem not the solution. How about the Republicans in 1984 and 2000? Or the Democrats in 2006 and 2008? How about the tea parties this year. I know it's easy to write the tea parties off as being the work of conservatives, but there is a deep anger in America and you better wake up to it. If the current economic crisis worsens, if there are major problems that affect mainstream America, if things do not improve, the voters are going to hold you responsible and once again you will find yourselves facing tough battles to remain in office. You may be laying the foundation for alternative parties, which this country desperately needs.

I would also like to touch briefly on Healthcare. Do we need a Healthcare program? Probably, but you and the President are responding as the government has always done; creating programs and spending money without first finding out what the real problems are and finding solutions for them. Medical costs are out of control, but instead of finding out why and fixing it you are merely finding a way to help the taxpayers pay for it. Since you do not receive or pay for the same medical care that we do, you have no idea what we and our families often have to endure. How many times have you gone in for medical treatment and have only seen an assistant (not even a doctor) instead of the doctor? How many times have you had to return to see the doctor and pay additional costs, because the doctor would only treat one problem at a time, even though both problems could have been easily treated in one trip? How many times have you been sent to various specialists for tests and treatments that were unneeded or unhelpful? How many times have you been denied a treatment? Before you pass a Healthcare bill, why not take the time to find out what the real healthcare problems are and how people can be truly helped. Think about your constituents first, not the medical or pharmaceutical special interests.

Ladies and Gentleman of Congress you have the opportunity to do something truly heroic and historic by turning from your usual practices, putting the voters and taxpayers first, and doing what is truly best for us and the country. Do not vote on any bill unless you have read it completely ( see www.honorinoffice.org ). Do not cater or pander to special interests. Seek to unite and not to divide.

Thank you for your time and, I hope, your attention.

Yours Truly

Carl Cortez
Voter/taxpayer