An Open Letter to Congress from Your Boss

Part Three A
Simple Solutions: The Economy

As I have already stated, my life experience has taught me that if I seek out the simplest solution I will solve more problems faster. I do not feel unique in this understanding and I am sure that there are those of you who share a similar experience. I do not suffer from Terminal Uniquenss. And while I've never actually witnessed it I suspect that one looks rather foolish pole vaulting over mouse turds.

You continually tell us that the issues are too complex to be done simply which means you assume that we are all rather stupid and uninformed. The majority of us, although not particularly vocal about it, have a fairly substantial grasp of the concept behind Common Sense as well as the Obvious. What's obvious to us is that you folks don't possess much of either.

This can no longer be about who's right. It has to become about what's right. These are not political issues, they are human issues. Jobs, health care, immigration, financial reform, the economy, climate change, energy, and justice. Each of these issues affect humans, and we are no longer interested in being your ping pong balls. So, allow me the opportunity to offer some simple solutions. This will be easy, I promise.

Remember, these solutions are dependent on your having read part 2 and agreeing to stick to your Party principles and a willingness to listen.

Republicans, you are responsible for the economy and it will be up to you to repair this fiasco. The private sector must create the jobs that feed the kitty that allows the Democrats to take care of their responsibility to provide for health, education, and welfare. This is not an antagonistic relationship, it is a symbiotic one. When each side does its job, unlike now, everything hums right along. I've already told you where the jobs are going to have to come from and it's up to you and your corporated colleagues to get busy devloping the necessary funding to get it going.

Cooperation between you and Wall Street and the banks has to center on fixing what's broken, not finding ways to work around reform. Reforming things is what Democrats do. The best way to game them is to convince the Capitalists to just do the right thing and stop bleeding us for every damn nickel. The goal of corporate America seems to be acquiring every last dime. My question is, then what? Do you have a plan B? Look, if you don't reign in the greed and the voracious appetite for more there will be nothing left. You'll have it all, and it will be worth nothing. Forget reform, tell them to start doing the right thing. They will be rewarded by the single most consumer driven market on earth. Think about it, if you let us have some, we'll give it right back.

Those that were bailed out must give back every dime we gave them, and they must do it now. They have it, they know right where it is, including the first $350 million that is still unaccounted for. The banks have to be separated again into regular banks and investment banks. No more risk taking with our money. They can do what they want with theirs.

We don't need another agency designed to protect us from unscrupulous business practices if businesses would stop being unscroupulous. Again, the simplest way to get around reform is to not continually do things that make it look like you need it. As an example, I have a credit card that started with a balance of $2000 that was for a medical procedure. After two years of minimum payments, with one inadvertent late payment (one day, no less), I still owe them almost $2000. Another card disclosed that if I continued to make minimum monthly payments, it would take me 14 years and cost me an extra $8000 on a balance of just over $7000. Now you know why I don't have a new car or flat screen TV.

If you made $20 million dollars last year, how much of that $20 million dollar salary did you actually spend on living? Do you know how much of my $32 thousand dollar salary I had to spend last year to live? All of it. Neither of us needs $20 million dollars a year to live but I sure could use more than $32 thousand.

Stop throwing people out of their homes then writing off the loss which (as always) ultimately comes out of our pockets. Negotiate deals that people can afford based on their current situation, which is what you're doing with the folks that are actually able to buy a house right now, arent' you? Why not extend the same courtesy to the people who trusted you to not screw them in the first place? If the house they were tossed out of is still available, sell it back to them. If not, let them buy something else. Not everyone is going to be able to take advantage because some people actualy have almost nothing to work with anymore.

You could offer some as lease-to-own so that people who were forced out have another way back in. They're essentisally renting it from you when you give them a loan on it anyway. No one with a mortgage owns a home, they aren't homeowners, they are tenants of the bank. Might as well make full use of the position.

We just want to live, not merely survive. We really aren't asking for much, and we certainly aren't asking for anything that you don't have and can't afford to share. Unlike you, we don't want it all, we just want enough. The right thing is the simple thing and the simple thing is respect for your fellow humans. 

The simple solution is to get the money moved to the right places, invest in alternative energy development and other technologies, stop stealing from us, give some back so that we can play, too, create the jobs that will allow the Democrats to help the other part of the country that won't be able to get in on the private sector jobs.

Republicans, you have the power to make this happen. If the Capitalists resist, give them exactly what they don't want...reform. If they won't do it on their own, make them do it. You will get Democratic support for it is in their best interests, too.


So, Democrats what do you do? Support the Republicans as they deal with their friends on Wall Street and start preparing the way for your responsibilites. Creating public sector jobs ala the WPA and getting this country's infrastructure up to par is your first order. I don't know if you've noticed, but it's really starting to fall apart out here. You can also start crafting the immigration legislation that will be addressed and that I will speak to in an upcoming post. And keep your financial reform package and public option handy just in case.

Simply put, do this or we will replace you with people who will.