Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Dear Mr President:
Last night you made a speech to Congress, to the nation, and to the world which was inspiring and instructive. I appreciate and applaud your leadership. Your calm under fire, passion for the country, and decisive words and demeanor are just what a weary nation needs.
Last night in your speech, you listed a number of things the government would do - pursue terrorists at home and abroad, make use of the help of other nations, and improve the operation of those agencies who's job it is to protect us from the evil that touched our shores. Thank you, Mr President.
Last night in your speech you told us, as the people, what our job was in this. You said we needed to get back to work, to rebuild, to strengthen, to renew our nation. Mr President, we can do that. You have asked the best people on earth, to do the thing we are the best at. No nation's people on this planet are more capable, inventive, efficient, productive, imaginative, or work harder than we do, when we have a task to do. Mr President, on that you can depend. We could carry the world, if we needed to. We have before, and we could again. But Mr President, we need your help. There are some things WE need to accomplish this.
Mr President, we the people labor under some of the heaviest burdens we have ever been asked to bear. We are strong in grief and can console each other, we are resourceful, and don't just give up. But those who have had the task of "leading" before you came, have placed burdens on us so daunting, that they make even us weary.
We labor under a tax system, a system so complex, so focused on penalizing those who would produce, that the cost of mere COMPLIANCE is estimated to be more than a half TRILLION dollars a year. We labor under a tax system which confiscates the very tool we need to rebuild, to reverse the recession we're in now - capital. Capital is the engine that drives this nation. It is the very foundation of everything we do and everything we make. Yet, our tax system confiscates it from us. Those who enacted this burden told us to shut up and stop whining. That THEY knew far better than we did about how go about things. They spent it all and ran up a lot of debt - without anything more than promises to show for it.
Our farmers, loggers, ranchers, small businessmen all labor under environmental goals so radical it has killed off entire towns, ruining the lives of untold families and ripping apart communities. In the name of "caring for the earth", your predecessors have enacted laws which confiscate the farmers water, drain our valuable water down the river, and choke off the use of many of our natural resources we desperately need. We build houses out of lumber grown in Canada, while the timber in our forests darkens the sky with smoke, chokes our lungs with ash and pollutes our rivers with runoff - whiling killing the wildlife that makes our nation so unique and beautiful. All in the name of "saving" it. Wise and careful use and cultivation - like we are instructed to make in the Bible - is contramanded and radical and useless goals are enacted which benefit neither man nor beast.
Our small businessmen are weighed down with laws that seek to control how they hire, fire, and otherwise run thier business. These laws are so complex and sometimes so vague, that following one leads to breaking another. At a time when jobs are suddenly more scarce and the news is that hundreds of thousands can lose thier jobs almost overnight, burdening our businesses with laws that do not accomplish good, but yet kill the strength of our nation.
Our people bear massive burdens of state and federal mandates that seek to "solve" tiny or even non-existent risks. These were enacted by well-intentioned but terribly unfocused legislatures who, in times of prosperity and peace sought to endear tehmselves to us by "protecting" us from myriad "dangers" of little to no import. At this time, when real and true danger rears it's head, perspective is regained - and these meddlesome and expensive laws need to be repealed. Mr President, we can carry many of our own risks, because the weight of those risks is FAR less than the weight of the risks to the nation, when it's people are impoverished and unproductive.
Mr President, the people carry a huge financial burden in the cost of government upon us. Everything we buy, everything we do, carries with it a huge cost imposed by regulators who seemed to have nothing better to do than write new and mostly useless laws to "save" us from one "crisis" after another. Now when real crisis strikes, those laws deepen and broaden it. For instance, we have made great strides in the cleaning of our air and water. But an agency of the government YOU head continues to make more and more massively expensive demands for what are now almost microscopic benefits, if they benefit us at all. Automobile emissions, for instance, are now so low that improved air quality will continue for some time to come, just becuase the old cars wear out. Yet, we as a people are being asked to believe and carry the cost of the goal of zero pollution. Federal mandates increase the cost of our transportation, machinery, and a host of other daily needs - yet those mandates and the yet more stringent ones planned have little scientific evidence to show that they are beneficial... much less sufficiently so to warrant the cost.
Mr President, I, as a patriotic, determined, and optomistic American believe we as a people can do anything we set our minds to. We are capable of conquering any foe, rebuilding from any disaster, and recovering from any attack. But we cannot overcome limitations and burdens our leaders place upon us.
So I ask, I beg, I plead - give us relief from these things. Instead of burdening us with political clap-trap - restore wisdom to process of taxation - it's purpose is to fund the things you must do, not to control and punish us for being too wealthy or producing or creating capital. Unleash us from the reigns of runaway regulation. A few good laws do far more than a vast mountain of bad ones. Give us back authority over our lives, let us assume some risks, and in return we will do what you asked us to do. And we'll do it bigger, better, stronger, and more than it ever was before. And we'll do it without complaining, without whining, moaning, or dissent.
Now, Mr President, when Congress recognizes the need and has a clear vision of what is required, now is the time to help US help you.
Thank you, Mr President, and may God bless and keep you.
Mark Koskenmaki
Weston, Oregon.
Last night you made a speech to Congress, to the nation, and to the world which was inspiring and instructive. I appreciate and applaud your leadership. Your calm under fire, passion for the country, and decisive words and demeanor are just what a weary nation needs.
Last night in your speech, you listed a number of things the government would do - pursue terrorists at home and abroad, make use of the help of other nations, and improve the operation of those agencies who's job it is to protect us from the evil that touched our shores. Thank you, Mr President.
Last night in your speech you told us, as the people, what our job was in this. You said we needed to get back to work, to rebuild, to strengthen, to renew our nation. Mr President, we can do that. You have asked the best people on earth, to do the thing we are the best at. No nation's people on this planet are more capable, inventive, efficient, productive, imaginative, or work harder than we do, when we have a task to do. Mr President, on that you can depend. We could carry the world, if we needed to. We have before, and we could again. But Mr President, we need your help. There are some things WE need to accomplish this.
Mr President, we the people labor under some of the heaviest burdens we have ever been asked to bear. We are strong in grief and can console each other, we are resourceful, and don't just give up. But those who have had the task of "leading" before you came, have placed burdens on us so daunting, that they make even us weary.
We labor under a tax system, a system so complex, so focused on penalizing those who would produce, that the cost of mere COMPLIANCE is estimated to be more than a half TRILLION dollars a year. We labor under a tax system which confiscates the very tool we need to rebuild, to reverse the recession we're in now - capital. Capital is the engine that drives this nation. It is the very foundation of everything we do and everything we make. Yet, our tax system confiscates it from us. Those who enacted this burden told us to shut up and stop whining. That THEY knew far better than we did about how go about things. They spent it all and ran up a lot of debt - without anything more than promises to show for it.
Our farmers, loggers, ranchers, small businessmen all labor under environmental goals so radical it has killed off entire towns, ruining the lives of untold families and ripping apart communities. In the name of "caring for the earth", your predecessors have enacted laws which confiscate the farmers water, drain our valuable water down the river, and choke off the use of many of our natural resources we desperately need. We build houses out of lumber grown in Canada, while the timber in our forests darkens the sky with smoke, chokes our lungs with ash and pollutes our rivers with runoff - whiling killing the wildlife that makes our nation so unique and beautiful. All in the name of "saving" it. Wise and careful use and cultivation - like we are instructed to make in the Bible - is contramanded and radical and useless goals are enacted which benefit neither man nor beast.
Our small businessmen are weighed down with laws that seek to control how they hire, fire, and otherwise run thier business. These laws are so complex and sometimes so vague, that following one leads to breaking another. At a time when jobs are suddenly more scarce and the news is that hundreds of thousands can lose thier jobs almost overnight, burdening our businesses with laws that do not accomplish good, but yet kill the strength of our nation.
Our people bear massive burdens of state and federal mandates that seek to "solve" tiny or even non-existent risks. These were enacted by well-intentioned but terribly unfocused legislatures who, in times of prosperity and peace sought to endear tehmselves to us by "protecting" us from myriad "dangers" of little to no import. At this time, when real and true danger rears it's head, perspective is regained - and these meddlesome and expensive laws need to be repealed. Mr President, we can carry many of our own risks, because the weight of those risks is FAR less than the weight of the risks to the nation, when it's people are impoverished and unproductive.
Mr President, the people carry a huge financial burden in the cost of government upon us. Everything we buy, everything we do, carries with it a huge cost imposed by regulators who seemed to have nothing better to do than write new and mostly useless laws to "save" us from one "crisis" after another. Now when real crisis strikes, those laws deepen and broaden it. For instance, we have made great strides in the cleaning of our air and water. But an agency of the government YOU head continues to make more and more massively expensive demands for what are now almost microscopic benefits, if they benefit us at all. Automobile emissions, for instance, are now so low that improved air quality will continue for some time to come, just becuase the old cars wear out. Yet, we as a people are being asked to believe and carry the cost of the goal of zero pollution. Federal mandates increase the cost of our transportation, machinery, and a host of other daily needs - yet those mandates and the yet more stringent ones planned have little scientific evidence to show that they are beneficial... much less sufficiently so to warrant the cost.
Mr President, I, as a patriotic, determined, and optomistic American believe we as a people can do anything we set our minds to. We are capable of conquering any foe, rebuilding from any disaster, and recovering from any attack. But we cannot overcome limitations and burdens our leaders place upon us.
So I ask, I beg, I plead - give us relief from these things. Instead of burdening us with political clap-trap - restore wisdom to process of taxation - it's purpose is to fund the things you must do, not to control and punish us for being too wealthy or producing or creating capital. Unleash us from the reigns of runaway regulation. A few good laws do far more than a vast mountain of bad ones. Give us back authority over our lives, let us assume some risks, and in return we will do what you asked us to do. And we'll do it bigger, better, stronger, and more than it ever was before. And we'll do it without complaining, without whining, moaning, or dissent.
Now, Mr President, when Congress recognizes the need and has a clear vision of what is required, now is the time to help US help you.
Thank you, Mr President, and may God bless and keep you.
Mark Koskenmaki
Weston, Oregon.
A capital gains tax cut would be good mojo for the economy.
