Kiner's Korner: Dear Mr. President

A letter to President Obama:

Dear Mr. President,

I voted for you three years ago. Please give me a reason to vote for you again in 2012. Your campaign speeches inspired us. Please inspire us now. You gave us hope that eight years of the Bush presidency would be put behind us.  We are still hoping to see those two wars ended and the middle class once more at work and free from foreclosures. Listening to you, the world was given new hope for the future. You were embraced by all who heard your voice crying out for personal freedom, and for political and economic equality. Your words, Mr. President, were delivered with reverence, honesty, and simplicity. You inspired us. We understood your dreams, but today, regrettably those dreams are just that - dreams.

The unemployment rate is stuck at 9.1%. Homes are still being foreclosed on with ever increasing numbers. Mortgages that are "underwater" are common. Retirees and those who hope to retire soon are seeing the money in their 401(k)'s evaporate. The U.S. poverty rate now stands at 15.1 percent, the highest it's been since 1983. Our young men and women are still dying at the hands of Islamic extremists. Today the American dream is just that-a dream.

Please understand, Mr. President, that you alone are not to blame for these conditions. You've inherited a deficit of over one trillion dollars from the previous administration. Some economists are saying that projected deficits could reach many trillions more. The Bush tax cuts helped the wealthy. They didn't help me any. When you put money in an average person's pocket we will spend it. We may even pay off our mortgages on the one home that we live in with our families.

You inherited two wars at a cost of over two trillion dollars. We are now winding down our military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Money will be saved and the precious lives of our loved ones will no longer be fodder for Muslim extremists.

Euro Zone economic woes are hurting us as well. Mr. President, we know that this one is out of your hands. The sad effect though is that investors are very skittish about investing their dollars in the market place right now. Those people who still have anything left in their 401(k)'s are seeing the effects of a European economy on the brink.

Every day the media gives us negative news about our country. I know that you cannot do it alone and I know that you do not have the support of the majority in Congress. But fight the battle, Mr. President. Stand up to those members of Congress who refuse to listen to the truth, and who seem to be stuck in the Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover economic fantasies of the 1920's. Their mantra then was that "the business of America is business". No! The business of America is to see that Americans who want to work can work. The business of America is to see that those Americans who want homes for their families don't find themselves living on the streets, homeless.

I know that you are trying, Mr. President. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is putting people to work-but it's not enough.

Mr. President, please show us that you have regained your mojo and are willing to take on those members of Congress who refuse to listen to middle class Americans.  Sam Adams, who led the Boston Tea Party and who defined American exceptionalism, would be appalled to see his historic event be denigrated by those that who have today taken on the Tea Party name.

This week you once more showed that you can fight. You have once again regained that fighting spirit that so impressed us in 2008. By wanting to make our tax code fairer you have already incurred the wrath of those in Congress who represent only the rich and the powerful among us. Under your proposal there would be a new minimum tax rate for  millionaires that would ensure that they pay the same federal tax rate at least as high as that paid by middle class wage earners. Some Republicans like Paul Ryan (R-Wis) are calling this new measure" class warfare". Those of us living in towns such as Enfield, call it by a different name-we call it fairness!

Mr. President, I still have faith in you. I know that you will find away out of this mess so that we all can once again live "the American Dream".