A Real Letter to a Real Congressional Candidate

Sir

I am an old friend of X, one of your most committed supporters. In the course of thinking about our country’s economic quagmire and having heard so much about you from X, I was wondering what you had to say on the subject and so checked out your web site. I didn’t find anything substantive or useful. I am not sure how you will be able to lower taxes given that we have something like $13 Trillion of national debt that we must pay the Chinese and others. That does not count the unfunded liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare. Since we were told Social Security was not a tax but an investment program (ha!), the baby boomers are not likely to want a cut in their benefits. I didn’t see any comments on protecting the value of the American dollar on your web site. This is a bit disturbing as the other way to get out of debt is inflation. I would like to hear some details of your economic plans and something about the credentials and philosophical background of your economic advisers. Do you have any such information?

The following equation is a very simplistic application of the first law energy balance to economics.

Taxes in = Money owed + Expenses out

Cutting the size of government addresses one part of the equation, but how do you plan to pay down the debt without inflation or more taxes? How can we escape this trap? I would really like to hear your answer.

I fear we, as a nation, are not ready for the truth. I expect that in ten to twenty years we will behave like Greece or Argentina and riot over broken promises. Unless good and wise men find a way to unravel this mess in a slow and systematic manner, which I am afraid will include higher taxes, we will follow other countries into a collapse of some sort. I am smart enough to see what is coming but not smart enough to say when or how it will happen.

I am particularly praying for the unemployed. However our politicians choose to solve the debt equation,stable wealth producing jobs are the key to any recovery. Automation, illegal immigration, and outsourcing are gradually eroding the possibility of the American dream for ever larger numbers of men and women. There are limits to what Government can accomplish with other peoples’ money. Private charity can not begin to deal with a social transformation of this magnitude. How can we address this problem?

I wonder what will be in his reply.