Staffer Discusses Flaws in Fiscal Plans

Dear Washington,

Mazel tov on passing the fiscal cliff deal. It was so brilliant of you guys to just push the problem back instead of solving it. Good luck when we hit the debt ceiling in a few months and you have to handle this crisis all over again. That’s why I’m writing you, so I can give you some much needed advice on how to help us, high schoolers, out some. After all we’re only the generation who will be stuck with this mess that you’ve left behind.
First, President Obama, don’t raise taxes on the middle class again. While you did extend the Bush tax cuts for the middle and lower classes, you also allowed a payroll tax cut and a reduction in Social Security (a program that helps pay for retirement and disabilities) to expire. This means a $1,200 tax hike on those who are the backbone of the country and the economy, the middle class. We’ll actually be paying more, and for a program that might not be around when we need it. This means a $1,200 tax hike on those who are the backbone of the country and the economy, the middle class. Some tax hikes are necessary, but raising taxes on people who can’t afford it will just hurt the economy more. Go ahead and raise taxes on the top one percent. That will help raise more revenue, and they’ll still have the money to keep spending and investing. But when you raise taxes on the middle class they won’t have the money to continue to spend and put into the economy hurting it more. Didn’t you say you weren’t going to raise taxes on us?

To the Congressional Republican: stop trying to push through all these spending cuts. In economic jargon these are called austerity measures,  which have been very unsuccessful. To put this simply, austerity measures (tax cuts) do not work. Austerity measures have no real effect on lowering deficit. After an initial drop, the deficit will rise right back to where it used to be according to a study by the International Monetary Fund. Not to mention that it also hurts the confidence of the market making it less likely that other countries will invest in us and that will hurt American companies. If companies start sliding backwards then they’ll stop hiring and they’ll start firing. Soon we’ll be seeing unemployment rising again and the economy sliding back down hill. Stop trying to slash the budgets or it will send us into another recession or something worse.

And this last bit is a little advice to all you politicians. You need to stop with all of this partisan junk. You’re here to represent the people, not to make Fox News and MSNBC happy. It’s okay to cross lines every once in awhile instead of doing exactly what these stations are telling you to do. They aren’t here to represent the people, but to represent the opinions of the people who fund them. They’re just locking up congress in a partisan gridlock. You’re here to represent us, the people, not some “news” station. There’s a long list of things that haven’t been able to get through this gridlock. A United Nations treaty that would have helped disabled people across the world was voted down because Republicans aren’t fans of the United Nations. Hurricane Sandy victims got a fraction of the money they desperately need because House Republicans wouldn’t let it through. Countless other bills that would’ve done things like make women’s paychecks equal to men’s and that would raise the minimum wage have all been lost in this congressional quarrel. And this list goes on and on. Nothing will get done if we don’t start working together.

This is a big issue in for all of us right now. If you keep raising taxes on the middle class then the gap between the rich and the rest will rise. If we just slash programs our markets will suffer. And if we can’t get rid of this debt then the value of the dollar will drop and we’ll fall behind countries like India and China.

It’s time that you stand up and do the right thing and not just what your party says you should do. It’s time for you to represent us, not just your party. If you don’t, my generation will feel it. Will you, Washington, do something about it?

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