Shared Sacrifice: You too Mr. President

Dear Mr. President.

In your July 17th Weekly Radio address, you asked for shared sacrifice calling on the “wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share”.

I agree, we should ask the wealthiest Americans to sacrifice some of their vast wealth. To this end I make the following recommendation; One that lowers the government’s domestic obligations while being very popular among average Americans.

Cut your pay by ten percent.

That’s right: lowering you pay will have a direct one for one, dollar for dollar, reduction in deficit spending.

It would show the people that you are willing to personally participate in the shared sacrifice. It would also put you in an excellent position to influence the US Congress to lower their salaries as well.

Start a movement of shared sacrifice across the country.

This is just my suggestion to help our country out of worsening situation.

Thank you for your support.

Policy Causes Energy Costs to Go Up: Stop it

Ref: Letter to congress entitled, "Letter from the President to Congressional Leadership Regarding Oil Subsidies", published April 26th, 2011, and your weekly radio address on the same subject.

Dear Mr. President.

I believe your advisers are leading you astray in this area. Ostensibly, the purpose is to influence congress to help curtail the skyrocketing cost of energy in this country and spend it instead on green technologies by removing tax incentives.

The recommendation to remove $4 billion in business expense tax credits can only have one affect on consumer prices. The oil industry will do as all businesses do when their expenses increase: they will raise their prices. This will drive up the cost of living for every day Americans.

Oil is the primary mover of American economy. When its costs go up, so do the cost of every product and service Americans use and need. The problem will affect the working poor the hardest.

We will only produce more jobs and reduce dependency on foreign oil by tapping into our own mineral resources, not by making it more expense.

Investing in green energy, something that has been going on in earnest for over 30 years has yet to produce a reliable and relatively inexpensive alternative to oil. Even the ethanol project has proven to be a near zero sum gain while driving up the cost of food and the taxpayers are paying extra for it twice (taxes and retail). Spending should be ended on ethanol related subsidies.

We need energy now and experts agree: encouraging domestic production will have an immediate lowering effect on market prices.

America was the land of opportunity, but the continued anti-business, anti-opportunity and anti-success rhetoric and policies, in addition to the devalued US dollar due to unprecedented deficit spending, has greatly reduced our ability to create enough jobs to gainfully employ our citizens.

I urge you to reverse your position on legitimate business tax credits and open up ANWR and other areas to drilling and mining to ensure that this country remains the leader in this world and once more becomes the land of opportunity.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.